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Blue Whale
At an average of 25 m (82 ft) long and 160 tonnes (176 tons), blue
whales (Balaenoptera musculus) are not just the largest mammals,
but the largest animals ever to live on our planet. The biggest
specimen on record, measured in 1909 at a whaling station in the
South Atlantic, came in at a whopping 33.57 m (110 ft 1.6 in). That’s
about the same length as three London double-decker buses.
B
lue whales are an inventory of
superlatives, from their extraordinary
size to their bottomless appetites.
Not surprisingly, given their magnitude,
they have the largest heart. One example,
extracted from a 24-m (78-ft) carcass that
washed up in 2014, weighed in at 440 lb
(199.5 kg) – about the same as an upright piano
– and was 5 ft (1.5 m) from top to bottom.
Recent research suggests that as a blue
whale dives, its heartbeat drops to just twice a
minute – the slowest heart rate in a mammal.
It rises to nearer 40 beats at the ocean surface,
but “that’s about as fast as that heart can
physically beat,” according to Stanford
University’s Dr Jeremy Goldbogen.
Blue whales can remain underwater for
an hour, primarily thanks to possessing the
largest lungs. They have a combined capacity
of 5,000 litres (1,320 gal) of air – enough to
fill around 450 party balloons using a single
breath! Not only are these organs massive, but
they are extremely efficient: up to 90% of the
air intake is transferred to the bloodstream.
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