Facts about Anatomy of Blue Whales

1. 06

   Beneath their skin, blue whales have a thick layer of blubber that insulates them in cold ocean waters and serves as an energy reserve.

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2. 05

   Massive flippers, which can reach several meters in length, help blue whales steer and stabilize their enormous bodies during deep dives.

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3. 04

   Unusually among mammals, blue whales have a four-chambered heart connected to an aorta wide enough for a human to crawl through.

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4. 03

   A blue whale's tongue alone can weigh as much as an elephant, reflecting the massive scale of their feeding apparatus.

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5. 02

   Blue whales possess baleen plates instead of teeth, using hundreds of keratin plates to filter enormous quantities of krill from seawater.

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6. 01

   The heart of a blue whale is the largest of any animal on Earth, roughly the size of a small car and weighing around 400 pounds.

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