What are three features that determine whether a baleen whale is a rorqual?
Rorquals are distinguished from other baleen whales by the presence of ventral grooves extending from the chin and lower jaw margins down the throat to the belly. These allow the mouth cavity to expand into the throat and make gulp-feeding practical (see cetacean: Feeding adaptations).
What does a rorqual look like?
Rorquals are slender and streamlined in shape, compared with their relatives the right whales, and most have narrow, elongated flippers. They have a dorsal fin, situated about two-thirds the way back.
Is a humpback whale a Balaenopteridae?
Balaenopteridaerorquals. This family includes 6 species placed in 2 genera. It includes minke, Bryde’s, sei, fin, humpback, and blue whales.
Which whale is not a rorqual?
By the late Miocene, rorquals were relatively common fossils in many marine deposits. Gray created this family (the Balaenopteridae) in 1864 to include all the rorqual whales—defined as those that have a number of throat grooves. All except the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) share a strong family resemblance.
What are the major differences between baleen whales and toothed whales cetaceans )?
The key difference between them is the way they feed and what they have inside their mouth. Baleen whales have baleen plates, or sheets, which sieve prey from seawater. Toothed whales have teeth and they actively hunt fish, squid and other sea creatures.
What is a rorqual chamber on a baleen whale?
rorqualnoun. Any whale with longitudinal skin folds running from below the mouth to the navel, allowing the capacity of the mouth to expand greatly when feeding.
Are gray whales rorqual?
Gray whales are closely related to rorquals (Family Balaenopteridae), and the gray whale is included in the superfamily Balaenopteroidea.
What are throat pleats whales?
Blubbery pleats that run along the underside of the whale’s throat allow it to expand without tearing (the name ‘rorqual’ comes from the Norwegian for ‘furrow whale’). The tongue (which, in a blue whale, is the size of an elephant) inverts into a large flattened sac, partly retreating through the floor of the mouth.
What are 2 characteristics that distinguish baleen whales?
Size. Baleen whales are some of the world’s largest animals.
What are 4 types of whales called?
The suborder Mysticeti includes the types of whales known as baleen whales and contains four families, which includes the Gray whale, the rorquals, the Right Whales and the Humpback Whale which resides in a genus all it’s own.
What are 2 characteristics that distinguish toothed whales?
The presence of baleen plates and teeth in the mouths mainly distinguish the two groups, and they are so named. Baleen whales are larger than toothed whales. There are more species of toothed whales than baleen whales. Toothed whales can swim faster than baleen whales.
Where are Balaenopteridae found?
The Balaenidae, the Balaenopteridae, the sperm whale, and the killer whale are found in polar, temperate, and tropical waters of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres (except gray and bowhead whales, which occur in the Northern Hemisphere).
What is the difference between rorquals and balaenopterids?
These “pleated throat grooves” distinguish balaenopterids from other whales. Rorquals are slender and streamlined in shape, compared with their relatives the right whales, and most have narrow, elongated flippers. They have a dorsal fin, situated about two-thirds the way back.
How many species of Balaenoptera are there?
The Balaenopteridae is most speciose, with eight species in two genera. Balaenoptera species vary in size, distribution, behavior, and especially aspects of the feeding apparatus (baleen size and spacing, size and shape of the upper jaw). Skeletal differences are rather minor, and disparity appears low.