Wild Animals A-Z

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Whale

Toothed or Baleen: Whales can be divided into two groups — baleen and toothed. Baleen whales, like the humpback, blue, minke and right, take large amounts of water into their huge mouths and sift out plankton through 130 to 140 baleen plates located on each side of the upper jaw. Toothed whales have simple conical teeth within a beak-like mouth as seen in the dolphin. This group mainly feeds on fish.

Giants of the Deep: Baleen whales are known for their size, which ranges from 21 feet to 110 feet long. Toothed whales tend to be smaller. A notable exception is the toothed sperm whale, which can reach a size of 59 feet long. Toothed whales also have a melon-shaped structure located near their foreheads, which is believed to be used as an echolocation device for locating prey.

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MORE WHALE

VIDEO: Humpback Whale Showdown

PHOTOS: Humpbacks and Their Songs (audio)

VIDEO: The Way of the Humpback

QUIZ: Test Your Whale IQ

SPECIES: Meet the Blue Whale

SPECIES: Great Sperm Whale

TOP 10: Top Animal Glutton

PUZZLES: Ice Whale Puzzles

DID YOU KNOW?

Largest Animal Ever: Capble of growing to around 100 feet in length and 180 tons in weight, the blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived. It's even bigger than any known dinosaur.

The Hippo's Distant Cousin: The hippopotamus is the whale's closest living land-dwelling relative. They share a common ancestor that lived 54 million years ago. Whales entered the water around 50 million years ago.

Hearing Underwater: Whales don't have outer ears. Instead, they receive sound through their lower jaw. The sound is conducted from the jaw through a fat-filled cavity to the middle and inner ears.

The Longest-Lived: Move over tortoises! The bowhead whale was recently proven to be the longest-lived animal on earth. A male with a 19th century harpoon fragment in its flesh was shown to be 211 years old.

How Stuff Works

What Happens to Whales When They Die?
All animals die, but when a whale dies, it's like a grand underwater event. Get all the morbid details at HowStuffWorks.com.