Whales are amongst the most enigmatic and fascinating of all creatures. The Blue Whale is the largest animal ever to have lived on earth, at up to 100 tons, easily out-weighing the heaviest dinosaurs, even an "ordinary " sized whale is a vast and impressive creature.
Killer whale or Orca looking around having broken thin ice for a breathing hole, picture courtesy NOAAWhales are huge, but elusive and difficult to see which adds to their mystery and fascination. They are highly intelligent animals with an elaborate social life, no possessions and the complete freedom of movement in three dimensions. Is it any wonder that they are such popular and fascinating animals? - maybe we just want to be like them!
Whales belong to the group of mammals called Cetaceans, they are a part of this group along with dolphins and porpoises.
Whales are mammals as are humans, dogs, cats, elephants and anguantibos amongst others. This means that they are not fish. They breath air and so must return to the surface at regular intervals to get a breath. They give birth to live young that stay with the mother for over a year and feed on milk produced by the mother.
Whales are warm blooded and have a skeleton similar to our own (though greatly modified) the fore limbs are their front flippers and have similar bones in them to our arms and hands. The hind-limbs are generally not present at all, though are represented in many species by a tiny pair of "free floating" bones (pelvic vestiges) - not attached to any others - towards the rear of the animal. In the males of some species these bones serve as an insertion for the muscles that control the penis.
Skeleton of a Right Whale
The rear flippers of a whale are called the flukes, these have no bone in them at all, being made of tough fibrous material. It is the flukes that provide the propulsive power in all Cetaceans with the forelimbs controlling direction and being used for communicative and social functions.
All whales have muscle with a high level of Myoglobin. This is a red pigment similar to haemoglobin that stores oxygen in the muscles for use during deep dives. When the whale surfaces, the oxygen in the myoglobin is replaced, similar to the process that happens in our own muscles during a sprint.
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