Are humpbacks rorquals?
whaling: Modern whaling stocks of “wrong” whales, the rorquals (chiefly the blue, humpback, fin, and sei whales).
What is the function of the Rorqual?
These furrows allow the mouth to expand immensely when feeding, “permitting them to engorge great mouthfuls of food and water in a single gulp”. These “pleated throat grooves” distinguish balaenopterids from other whales.
What does Balaenoptera mean?
Definition of Balaenoptera : a genus (the type of the family Balaenopteridae) of whalebone whales that comprises the rorquals.
What does Balaenoptera musculus mean in Latin?
All baleen whales belong to the suborder Mysticeti, which is Latin for “mustached whales”. The blue whale’s scientific name is Balaenoptera musculus. Its generic name, Balaenoptera, means “winged whale”, which refers to the blue whale’s dorsal fin. The blue whale’s specific name, musculus, means “little mouse”.
What are throat grooves on a whale?
Humpback whales have 14-35 throat grooves that run from the chin to the navel. These grooves allow their throat to expand during the huge intake of water during filter feeding. They have small, round bumps on the front of the head (called knobs or tubercles), edging the jaws.
How many Rorquals are there?
eight species
There are eight species of rorqual whales: humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus), Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera edeni), blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), northern minke (Balaenoptera acutorostrata), Antarctic minke (Balaenoptera bonaerensis), and sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis).
What are whale throat grooves for?
On the throat, the Gray whale has two to seven grooves of excess skin. These grooves expand and contract, allowing the whale to scoop up giant mouthfuls of food and water when it’s feeding.
What is the scientific name of Blue Whale?
Balaenoptera musculus
Blue whale/Scientific names
What are the body blue whales called?
A blue whale can eat eight to ten tons of krill every day. The blue whale’s body is long and slender….Blue whale.
| Blue whale Temporal range: Middle Pleistocene – recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓ | |
|---|---|
| Genus: | Balaenoptera |
| Species: | B. musculus |
| Binomial name |
Why is the blue whale called Balaenoptera musculus?
Nomenclature. The genus name, Balaenoptera, means winged whale while the species name, musculus, could mean “muscle” or a diminutive form of “mouse”, possibly a pun by Carl Linnaeus when he named the species in Systema Naturae.