BLUE WHALE - EnchantedLearning.com - 0 views
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GENERAL DESCRIPTION The blue whale is the largest animal that ever lived on Earth. It is also the loudest animal on Earth. These enormous mammals eat tiny organisms, like plankton and krill, which they sieve through baleen. They live in pods (small groups). These gray-blue whales have 2 blowholes and a 2-14 inch (5-30 cm) thick layer of blubber. Blue whales are rorqual whales, whales that have pleated throat grooves that allow their throat to expand during the huge intake of water during filter feeding. Blue whales have 50-70 throat grooves that run from the throat to mid-body.
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Blue whales grow to be about 80 feet (25 m) long on average, weighing about 120 tons (109 tonnes). The largest specimen found was a female 94 feet (29 m) long weighing more 174 tons (158 tonnes). The females are larger than males, as with all baleen whales. The largest of the blue whales (150 tons) has a heart that weighs about 1,000 pounds (450 kg) and has 14,000 pounds (6,400 kg) of blood circulating in its body. The heart is about the size of a Volkswagon bug car. A human could crawl through the aorta (a major blood vessel).
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SKIN, SHAPE AND FINS The blue whale's skin is usually blue-gray with white-gray spots. The underbelly has brown, yellow, or gray specks. During the winter in cold waters, diatoms stick to the underbelly, giving it a yellow to silver- to sulfur-colored sheen; they are sometimes called "sulfur bottom." They have a very small, falcate (sickle-shaped) dorsal fin that is located near the flukes (tail). Blue whales have long, thin flippers 8 feet long (2.4 m) and flukes that are 25 feet (7.6 m) wide.
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