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Chandu Chandu
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Can you give information about whale?

  • 11 months ago
STORM BANDIT-is an Aunt! by STORM BANDIT-is an Aunt!
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Here is a website that give you detailed information on 10 different species of whales (the most known).

http://majictwins.tripod.com/whalefacts.…

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Other Answers (8)

  • Pankaj by Pankaj
    Member since:
    19 December 2007
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    "Whales" are marine mammals which are neither dolphins – members, in other words, of the families delphinidae or platanistoidae – nor porpoises. They include the blue whale, the largest animal ever to have lived. Orcas, colloquially referred to as "killer whales", and pilot whales have whale in their name but for the purpose of classification they are actually dolphins. For centuries whales have been hunted for meat and as a source of valuable raw materials. By the middle of the 20th century, large-scale industrial whaling had left many populations severely depleted, rendering certain species seriously endangered.

    Like all mammals, whales breathe air into lungs, are warm-blooded, feed their young milk from mammary glands, and have some (although very little) hair.

    The body is fusiform, resembling the streamlined form of a fish. The forelimbs, also called flippers, are paddle-shaped. The end of the tail holds the fluke, or tail fins, which provide propulsion by vertical movement. Although whales generally do not possess hind limbs, some whales (such as sperm whales and baleen whales) sometimes have rudimentary hind limbs; some even with feet and digits. Most species of whale bear a fin on their backs known as a dorsal fin.

    Beneath the skin lies a layer of fat, called blubber. It serves as an energy reservoir and also as insulation. Whales have a four-chambered heart. The neck vertebrae are fused in most whales, which provides stability during swimming at the expense of flexibility. They have a pelvis bone, which is a vestigial structure Whales breathe through their blowholes, located on the top of the head so the animal can remain submerged. Baleen whales have two; toothed whales have one. The shapes of whales' spouts when exhaling after a dive, when seen from the right angle, differ between species. Whales have a unique respiratory system that lets them stay underwater for long periods of time without taking in oxygen. Some whales, such as the Sperm Whale, can stay underwater for up to two hours holding a single breath. The Blue Whale is the largest known mammal that has ever lived, and the largest living animal, at up to 35 m (105ft) long and 150 tons. Whales generally live for 40-90 years,[citation needed] depending on their species, and on rare occasions can be found to live over a century. Recently a fragment of a lance used by commercial whalers in the 19th century has been found in a bowhead whale caught off Alaska, which showed the whale to be between 115 and 130 years old. Furthermore, a technique for dating age from aspartic acid racemization in the whale eye, combined with a harpoon fragment, indicates an age of 211 years for one male, making bowhead whales the longest lived extant mammal species.Whale flukes often can be used as identifying markings, as is the case for humpback whales. This is the method by which the publicized errant Humphrey the whale was identified in three separate sightings.

    A toothed whale, like the sperm whale, possess teeth with cementum cells overlying dentine cells. Unlike human teeth which are comprised mostly of enamel on the tooth portion outside of the gum, whale teeth have cementum outside the gum. Only in larger whales does some enamel show where the cementum has been worn away on the tip of the tooth revealing the underlying enamel.
    • 11 months ago
    10% 1 Vote
  • Sweet Cat by Sweet Cat
    Member since:
    10 December 2006
    Total points:
    37789 (Level 7)
    LIVING IN THE OCEAN
    Whales are large, magnificent, intelligent, aquatic mammals. They breathe air through blowhole(s) into lungs (unlike fish who breathe using gills). Whales have sleek, streamlined bodies that move easily through the water. They are the only mammals, other than manatees (seacows), that live their entire lives in the water, and the only mammals that have adapted to life in the open oceans.

    Whales breathe air. They are NOT fish. They are mammals that spend their entire lives in the water.


    Cetaceans are the group of mammals that includes the whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Like all mammals:
    Whales breathe air into lungs,
    Whales have hair (although they have a lot less than land mammals, and have almost none as adults),
    Whales are warm-blooded (they maintain a high body temperature),
    Whales have mammary glands with which they nourish their young,
    Whales have a four-chambered heart.


    SIZE
    The biggest whale is the blue whale, which grows to be about 94 feet (29 m) long - the height of a 9-story building. These enormous animals eat about 4 tons of tiny krill each day, obtained by filter feeding through baleen. Adult blue whales have no predators except man.

    The smallest whale is the dwarf sperm whale which as an adult is only 8.5 feet (2.6 m) long.

    The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever existed on Earth. It is larger than any of the dinosaurs were. They are also the loudest animal on Earth.

    TWO TYPES OF CETACEANS
    Cetaceans include the whales, dolphins and porpoises. There are over 75 species of Cetaceans. Whales belong to the order Cetacea (from the Greek word "ketos" which means whale), which is divided into the following groups:
    Toothed whales (Odontoceti) - predators that use their peg-like teeth to catch fish, squid, and marine mammals, swallowing them whole. They have one blowhole (nostril) and use echolocation to hunt. There are about 66 species of toothed whales.
    Baleen whales (Mysticeti) - predators that sieve tiny crustaceans, small fish, and other tiny organisms from the water with baleen. Baleen is a comb-like structure that filters the baleen whales' food from the water. Baleen whales are larger than the toothed whales and have 2 blowholes (nostrils). There are 10 species of baleen whales.

    SWIMMING AND OTHER WATER ACTIVITIES
    Whales have a streamlined shape and almost no hair as adults (it would cause drag while swimming). Killer whales and Shortfin Pilot whales are the fastest, swimming up to 30 miles per hour (48 kph).
    Whales swim by moving their muscular tail (flukes) up and down. Fish swim by moving their tails left and right.

    Breaching: Many whales are very acrobatic, even breaching (jumping) high out of the water and then slapping the water as they come back down. Sometimes they twirl around while breaching. Breaching may be purely for play or may be used to loosen skin parasites or have some social meaning.

    Spyhopping: This is another cetacean activity in which the whale pokes its head out of the water and turns around, perhaps to take a look around.

    Lobtailing: Some whales stick their tail out of the water into the air, swing it around, and then slap it on the water's surface; this is called lobtailing. It makes a very loud sound. The meaning or purpose of lobtailing is unknown, but may be done as a warning to the rest of the pod of danger.

    Logging: Logging is when a whale lies still at the surface of the water, resting, with its tail hanging down. While floating motionless, part of the head, the dorsal fin or parts of the back are exposed at the surface.

    MIGRATION
    Many ceteaceans, especially baleen whales, migrate over very long distances each year. They travel, so
    • 11 months ago
    10% 1 Vote
  • cooldude64one by cooldude...
    Member since:
    09 December 2008
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    Their mammals because they breath air,they like to eat fish,and their testicles weigh a ton,and their penises are 10 feet long.
    • 11 months ago
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  • T.T.K. by T.T.K.
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  • Bob by Bob
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    thx for the points loser.
    • 11 months ago
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  • scientist by scientis...
    Member since:
    26 December 2007
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    i think you are using this for the project.Let it be usefull.Read the following.
    Like all mammals, whales breathe air into lungs, are warm-blooded, feed their young milk from mammary glands, and have some (although very little) hair.

    The body is fusiform, resembling the streamlined form of a fish. The forelimbs, also called flippers, are paddle-shaped. The end of the tail holds the fluke, or tail fins, which provide propulsion by vertical movement. Although whales generally do not possess hind limbs, some whales (such as sperm whales and baleen whales) sometimes have rudimentary hind limbs; some even with feet and digits. Most species of whale bear a fin on their backs known as a dorsal fin.

    Beneath the skin lies a layer of fat, called blubber. It serves as an energy reservoir and also as insulation. Whales have a four-chambered heart. The neck vertebrae are fused in most whales, which provides stability during swimming at the expense of flexibility. They have a pelvis bone, which is a vestigial structure Whales breathe through their blowholes, located on the top of the head so the animal can remain submerged. Baleen whales have two; toothed whales have one. The shapes of whales' spouts when exhaling after a dive, when seen from the right angle, differ between species. Whales have a unique respiratory system that lets them stay underwater for long periods of time without taking in oxygen. Some whales, such as the Sperm Whale, can stay underwater for up to two hours holding a single breath. The Blue Whale is the largest known mammal that has ever lived, and the largest living animal, at up to 35 m (105ft) long and 150 tons. Whales generally live for 40-90 years,[citation needed] depending on their species, and on rare occasions can be found to live over a century. Recently a fragment of a lance used by commercial whalers in the 19th century has been found in a bowhead whale caught off Alaska, which showed the whale to be between 115 and 130 years old.Furthermore, a technique for dating age from aspartic acid racemization in the whale eye, combined with a harpoon fragment, indicates an age of 211 years for one male, making bowhead whales the longest lived extant mammal species. Whale flukes often can be used as identifying markings, as is the case for humpback whales. This is the method by which the publicized errant Humphrey the whale was identified in three separate sightings.

    A toothed whale, like the sperm whale, possess teeth with cementum cells overlying dentine cells. Unlike human teeth which are comprised mostly of enamel on the tooth portion outside of the gum, whale teeth have cementum outside the gum. Only in larger whales does some enamel show where the cementum has been worn away on the tip of the tooth revealing the underlying enamel.

    Anatomy of the ear


    Whales' ears have specific adaptations to their underwater environment. In humans, the middle ear works as an impedance matcher between the outside air’s low impedance and the cochlear fluid’s high impedance. In aquatic mammals such as whales, however, there is no great difference between the outer and inner environments. Instead of sound passing through outer ear to middle ear, whales receive sound through their lower jaw, where it passes through a low-impedance, fat-filled cavity.

    Behavior
    A Humpback Whale breaching.

    Whales are widely classed as predators, but their food ranges from microscopic plankton to very large fish. Males are called bulls; females, cows. The young are called calves.

    As mammals, whales breathe air and must surface to get oxygen. This is done through a blowhole. Many whales also exhibit other surfacing behaviours such as breaching and tail slapping.

    Because of their environment (and unlike many animals), whales are conscious breathers: they decide when to breathe. All mammals sleep, including whales, but they cannot afford to fall into an unconscious state for too long, since they need to be conscious in order to breathe. It is thought that only one hemisphere of their brains sleeps at a time, so that whales are never completely asleep, but still get the rest they need. This is thought because whales often sleep with only one eye closed.[citation needed]

    Whales also communicate with each other using lyrical sounds, called whale song. Being so large and powerful, these sounds are also extremely loud (depending on the species); sperm whales have only been heard making clicks, as all toothed whales (Odontoceti) use echolocation and can be heard for many miles. They have been known to generate about 20,000 acoustic watts of sound at 163 decibels.

    Females give birth to a single calf. Nursing time is long (more than one year in many species), which is associated with a strong bond between mother and young. In most whales reproductive maturity occurs late, typically at seven to ten years. This mode of reproduction spawns few offspring, but provides each with a high probability of survival in the wild.

    The male genitals are retracted into cavities of
    • 11 months ago
    10% 1 Vote
  • PRIMO by PRIMO
    Member since:
    21 February 2008
    Total points:
    4623 (Level 4)
    Whales are marine mammals which are neither dolphins – members, in other words, of the families delphinidae or platanistoidae – nor porpoises. They include the blue whale, the largest animal ever to have lived. Orcas, colloquially referred to as "killer whales", and pilot whales have whale in their name but for the purpose of classification they are actually dolphins. For centuries whales have been hunted for meat and as a source of valuable raw materials. By the middle of the 20th century, large-scale industrial whaling had left many populations severely depleted, rendering certain species seriously endangered.
    Origins and taxonomy
    All cetaceans, including whales, dolphins and porpoises, are descendants of land-living mammals of the Artiodactyl order (even-toed ungulate animals). Both cetaceans and artiodactyl are now classified under the super-order Cetartiodactyla which includes both whales and hippopotamuses. In fact, whales are the closest living relatives of hippos; they evolved from a common ancestor at around 54 million years ago.[1][2] Whales entered the water roughly 50 million years ago.[3] Cetaceans are divided into two suborders:
    The baleen whales are characterized by baleen, a sieve-like structure in the upper jaw made of keratin, which they use to filter plankton from the water. They are the largest suborder of whale.
    The toothed whales have teeth and prey on fish, squid, or both. An outstanding ability of this group is to sense their surrounding environment through echolocation.
    A complete up-to-date taxonomical listing of all cetacean species, including all whales, is maintained at the Cetacea article
    Anatomy
    Like all mammals, whales breathe air into lungs, are warm-blooded, feed their young milk from mammary glands, and have some (although very little) hair.
    The body is fusiform, resembling the streamlined form of a fish. The forelimbs, also called flippers, are paddle-shaped. The end of the tail holds the fluke, or tail fins, which provide propulsion by vertical movement. Although whales generally do not possess hind limbs, some whales (such as sperm whales and baleen whales) sometimes have rudimentary hind limbs; some even with feet and digits. Most species of whale bear a fin on their backs known as a dorsal fin.
    Beneath the skin lies a layer of fat, called blubber. It serves as an energy reservoir and also as insulation. Whales have a four-chambered heart. The neck vertebrae are fused in most whales, which provides stability during swimming at the expense of flexibility. They have a pelvis bone, which is a vestigial structure Whales breathe through their blowholes, located on the top of the head so the animal can remain submerged. Baleen whales have two; toothed whales have one. The shapes of whales' spouts when exhaling after a dive, when seen from the right angle, differ between species. Whales have a unique respiratory system that lets them stay underwater for long periods of time without taking in oxygen. Some whales, such as the Sperm Whale, can stay underwater for up to two hours holding a single breath. The Blue Whale is the largest known mammal that has ever lived, and the largest living animal, at up to 35 m (105ft) long and 150 tons. Whales generally live for 40-90 years,[citation needed] depending on their species, and on rare occasions can be found to live over a century. Recently a fragment of a lance used by commercial whalers in the 19th century has been found in a bowhead whale caught off Alaska, which showed the whale to be between 115 and 130 years old.[4] Furthermore, a technique for dating age from aspartic acid racemization in the whale eye, combined with a harpoon fragment, indicates an age of 211 years for one male, making bowhead whales the longest lived extant mammal species.[5][6] Whale flukes often can be used as identifying markings, as is the case for humpback whales. This is the method by which the publicized errant Humphrey the whale was identified in three separate sightings.
    A toothed whale, like the sperm whale, possess teeth with cementum cells overlying dentine cells. Unlike human teeth which are comprised mostly of enamel on the tooth portion outside of the gum, whale teeth have cementum outside the gum. Only in larger whales does some enamel show where the cementum has been worn away on the tip of the tooth revealing the underlying enamel.
    Anatomy of the ear
    Whales' ears have specific adaptations to their underwater environment. In humans, the middle ear works as an impedance matcher between the outside air’s low impedance and the cochlear fluid’s high impedance. In aquatic mammals such as whales, however, there is no great difference between the outer and inner environments. Instead of sound passing through outer ear to middle ear, whales receive sound through their lower jaw, where it passes through a low-impedance, fat-filled cavity.
    Behavior
    Whales are widely classed as predators, but their food ranges from microscopic plankton to very large fish. Males are called bulls; females, cows. The young are called calves.As mammals, whales breathe air and must surface to get oxygen. This is done through a blowhole. Many whales also exhibit other surfacing behaviours such as breaching and tail slapping.Because of their environment (and unlike many animals), whales are conscious breathers: they decide when to breathe. All mammals sleep, including whales, but they cannot afford to fall into an unconscious state for too long, since they need to be conscious in order to breathe. It is thought that only one hemisphere of their brains sleeps at a time, so that whales are never completely asleep, but still get the rest they need. This is thought because whales often sleep with only one eye closed.Whales also communicate with each other using lyrical sounds, called whale song. Being so large and powerful, these sounds are also extremely loud (depending on the species); sperm whales have only been heard making clicks, as all toothed whales (Odontoceti) use echolocation and can be heard for many miles. They have been known to generate about 20,000 acoustic watts of sound at 163 decibels.Females give birth to a single calf. Nursing time is long (more than one year in many species), which is associated with a strong bond between mother and young. In most whales reproductive maturity occurs late, typically at seven to ten years. This mode of reproduction spawns few offspring, but provides each with a high probability of survival in the wild.
    • 11 months ago
    10% 1 Vote
  • Parangat B by Parangat B
    Member since:
    25 December 2008
    Total points:
    208 (Level 1)
    Whales are marine mammals which are neither dolphins – members, in other words, of the families delphinidae or platanistoidae – nor porpoises. They include the blue whale, the largest animal ever to have lived. Orcas, colloquially referred to as "killer whales", and pilot whales have whale in their name but for the purpose of classification they are actually dolphins. For centuries whales have been hunted for meat and as a source of valuable raw materials. By the middle of the 20th century, large-scale industrial whaling had left many populations severely depleted, rendering certain species seriously endangered.
    • 11 months ago
    0% 0 Votes

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