Blue Whale Research Paper

Blue Whale The blue whale Balaenoptera musculus is a marine mammal belonging to the baleen whales Mysticeti. The blue whale is the largest animal to have ever existed. The blue whale can mature up to 100 feet long and can weigh up to 173 tons. The diet of the blue whale consisits of mostly small crustaceans known as krill but also eat small plants and fish. The blue whale’s body type is long and slender and their body shade varies from greyish blue to a dark navy blue. The whales dorsal can have a light shade underneath. There are at least three distinct subspecies: The first being, musculus of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, the second being, intermedia of the Southern Ocean and the third being the brevicauda (also known as the pygmy blue whale) found in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean. …show more content…
For over a century the blue whales almost entered mass extinction when they were being hunted until they became a protected animal.
Hippos likely evolved from a group of anthracotheres about 15 million years ago, the first whales evolved over 50 million years ago, and the ancestor of both these groups was terrestrial. These first whales, such as Pakicetus, were typical land animals. They had long skulls and large carnivorous teeth. The blue whales used to walk on land with most of the other sean animals known today. The whale has a “leg” bone near the back of its body called the vestigial hip bones. Through evolution the whales have slowly gone into the water and did not need their legs so over time they went