There are many rumors that the largest animal on our planet - the blue whale has a heart the size of a car, but this is not necessarily true. Let's find out with me
En 2015, la carcasse d'un rorqual bleu échoué au Canada a été disséquée. Depuis lors, les scientifiques ont découvert que bon nombre de nos connaissances antérieures sur la taille des organes de la baleine bleue étaient erronées. Cette erreur peut être due au fait que nous avons peu d'occasions de mesurer la taille et le poids réels des organes du rorqual bleu.
Une idée populaire largement répandue est que le cœur d'une baleine bleue a la taille d'une voiture (souvent comparée à une Volkswagen Beetle) et pèse une demi-tonne. Cependant, sa taille réelle ne correspond qu'à la taille d'une voiture électrique qui s'écrase dans une aire de jeux pour enfants. Le cœur d'une baleine bleue pèse également à peu près le même poids qu'une moto de taille moyenne - environ 180 kg.
The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is the largest animal that ever lived on Earth. The largest blue whales can grow up to 34 meters long, and their skulls make up almost a quarter of their bodies. Blue whales belong to the family Balaenopteridae, which includes humpback whales, fin whales, Bryde whales, Sei whales and Minke whales. The Balaenopteridae are believed to have diverged from other families of the suborder Mysticeti around the middle Oligocene (28 million years ago).Since then, scientists have simulated the heart of a blue whale and created a copy that is currently on display at the Royal Ontario Museum with a height of 1.5 meters - and this is still the largest heart ever. known.
Another famous idea is that blue whales also have blood vessels so large that adults can even swim through the largest blood vessels of blue whales. But this is also a misinformation, because in fact, the largest blood vessel (aorta) of the blue whale is only about the same size as the diameter of an adult head.However, blue whales still have many things worth marveling at such as the mouth of an adult blue whale can hold 90 tons of sea water, the weight of the tongue is 2.7 tons, weighing more than 3 tons. Volkswagen Beetle.
The blue whale is the largest known animal in Earth's history. One of the largest dinosaur genera of the Mesozoic is Argentinosaurus weighing only 90 tons, and only about the size of an average blue whale.The sound produced by the blue whale is also unbelievably loud (up to 190 decibels, while the noise generated by a jet engine is only 140 decibels); although humans cannot hear the sounds made by blue whales with their ears because these noises are all at frequencies lower than the human ear can hear, in reality it can transmit hundreds of kilometers across the ocean floor.However, contrary to many people's expectations, the sound of blue whales can still only rank second in the animal kingdom. The first place belongs to a species of small water lily shrimp in the family Alpheidae, which can produce a sound of 200 decibels.
One would argue that, as the largest animal on Earth, the blue whale must be a predator and cannibalize other large animals. However, in reality, the throat of the blue whale is only about 23 cm in diameter. And the main diet of blue whales is krill (shrimp-like crustaceans averaging 5 cm in length) and sometimes small flippers (most are only 1 to 2 mm long).
Blue whales use the method of sprinting and swimming to hunt, after diving to a certain depth, they turn around and accelerate upwards, swallow a large amount of upper krill, and then use the baleen. jaw. jaw. jaws to filter seawater and food.
A blue whale can consume 2 million kg of food (equivalent to 500,000 calories) in one go. At certain times of the year, blue whales can consume almost 4 tons of food per day. This sprint predation could be “the biggest biomechanical event on Earth.” Although blue whales eat a huge amount of food in the summer, they eat almost nothing when they move to warm waters in the winter.
Blue whales often dive up to 100 m deep to feed during the day, and at night this activity mainly takes place near the surface of the water. Usually they can hunt continuously without returning to the water for 10 minutes, however, there have been recorded cases of being able to dive continuously for up to 21 minutes
Blue whales have a large, long and slender body that makes it easy for them to break the water when moving. They have a smooth gray-green stomach and lighter belly, and a series of folds on their neck that can dilate four times as they eat.
