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Krill are crustaceans and, as do all crustaceans, they have a chitinous exoskeleton. They have anatomy similar to a standard decapod with their bodies made up of three parts : the cephalothorax is composed of the head and the thorax , which are fused, and the abdomen , which bears the ten swimming appendages, and the tail fan .
Balaenoptera sibbaldii Sars 1875. The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of 29.9 m (98 ft) and weighing up to 199 t (196 long tons; 219 short tons), it is the largest animal known ever to have existed. [a] The blue whale's long and slender body can be of various shades ...
Whale feces, the excrement of whales, has a vital role in the ecology of oceans, [2] earning whales the title of "marine ecosystem engineers." This significant ecological role stems from the nutrients and compounds found in whale feces, which have far-reaching effects on marine life. Nitrogen and iron chelate released by cetacean species offer ...
In 2010, researchers found whales carry nutrients from the depths of the ocean back to the surface using a process they called the whale pump. [29] Whales feed at deeper levels in the ocean where krill is found, but return regularly to the surface to breathe. There whales defecate a liquid rich in nitrogen and iron.
Baleen is a filter-feeding system inside the mouths of baleen whales. To use baleen, the whale first opens its mouth underwater to take in water. The whale then pushes the water out, and animals such as krill are filtered by the baleen and remain as a food source for the whale. Baleen is similar to bristles and consists of keratin, the same ...
To catch prey, they widely open their lower jaw — almost 90° — swim through a swarm gulping, while lowering their tongue so that the head's ventral grooves expand and vastly increase the amount of water taken in. [16] Baleen whales typically eat krill in polar or subpolar waters during summers, but can also take schooling fish, especially ...
Many whales, such as the one photographed with the seal, are called baleen whales. This means that they eat by filtering tiny organisms, such as plankton and krill, from the water through their teeth.
Cetacea (/ sɪˈteɪʃə /; from Latin cetus ' whale ', from Ancient Greek κῆτος (kêtos) ' huge fish, sea monster ') [ 3 ] is an infraorder of aquatic mammals belonging to the suborder Whippomorpha that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size ...