Measuring between 24 and 33 meters in length and weighing up to 200 tons, the blue whale is the largest animal on the planet, and is thought be the largest animal that ever existed. Belonging to the baleen whales, the blue whale—which in reality is blue-gray—is a marine mammal and is found in all oceans except the Arctic and enclosed seas. Despite their global distribution, they number between 10,000–25,000, making them the most endangered of the great whales.
Blue whales reproduce sexually and are viviparous; male blue whales produce sperm and female blue whales produce eggs. Sperm is deposited inside the female and a single sperm fertilizes an egg, forming a diploid zygote. Blue whales are placental mammals—the fetus develops inside the mother’s …show more content…
It is only able to consume small prey due to its small esophagus and inability to chew its food. Blue whales swim towards their prey, take in an enormous amount of water and close their mouths. Their throats then contract to filter the water out, thereby retaining thousands of tiny creatures due to the baleen plates, which they then swallow. Thanks to their 3-chambered stomach, they are capable of digesting the hard exoskeleton of crustaceans. Blue whales are able to consume up to six tons of prey every day during the summer. The mouth contains 270 to 395 hard, bristle-like baleen plates that hang from each side of the upper jaw, which are used to filter food out of the water, hence the name baleen whales. To increase the volume of krill in its mouth, blue whales have adapted throat pleats. These folds of skin in the throat can expand into a large pouch that holds large volumes of water.
Because blue whales cannot breathe underwater—yet spend almost all of their lives underwater—they surface for approximately 2 seconds at a time to fill their huge lungs. Blue whales have two blow-holes on top of the head that expel air and sea water from their lungs when they surface. The spray from the blowhole can shoot up to 9 meters into the air and can create a sound, audible from several miles away. When a whale comes to the surface, it inhales enough air to fill a minivan. Its highly efficient longs allow 80 to 90% air exchange; in contrast, humans only exchange about 12 to 13 percent of their
Blue whales reproduce sexually and are viviparous; male blue whales produce sperm and female blue whales produce eggs. Sperm is deposited inside the female and a single sperm fertilizes an egg, forming a diploid zygote. Blue whales are placental mammals—the fetus develops inside the mother’s …show more content…
It is only able to consume small prey due to its small esophagus and inability to chew its food. Blue whales swim towards their prey, take in an enormous amount of water and close their mouths. Their throats then contract to filter the water out, thereby retaining thousands of tiny creatures due to the baleen plates, which they then swallow. Thanks to their 3-chambered stomach, they are capable of digesting the hard exoskeleton of crustaceans. Blue whales are able to consume up to six tons of prey every day during the summer. The mouth contains 270 to 395 hard, bristle-like baleen plates that hang from each side of the upper jaw, which are used to filter food out of the water, hence the name baleen whales. To increase the volume of krill in its mouth, blue whales have adapted throat pleats. These folds of skin in the throat can expand into a large pouch that holds large volumes of water.
Because blue whales cannot breathe underwater—yet spend almost all of their lives underwater—they surface for approximately 2 seconds at a time to fill their huge lungs. Blue whales have two blow-holes on top of the head that expel air and sea water from their lungs when they surface. The spray from the blowhole can shoot up to 9 meters into the air and can create a sound, audible from several miles away. When a whale comes to the surface, it inhales enough air to fill a minivan. Its highly efficient longs allow 80 to 90% air exchange; in contrast, humans only exchange about 12 to 13 percent of their