Tell about Blue Whale ?

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The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal belonging to the baleen whale parvorder, Mysticeti. At up to 29.9 metres (98 ft) in length and with a maximum recorded weight of 173 tonnes (190 short tons),it is the largest animal known to have ever existed.

The Blue Whale is the largest animal ever to have lived on earth.

Long and slender, the blue whale's body can be various shades of bluish-grey dorsally and somewhat lighter underneath.[9] There are at least three distinct subspecies: B. m. musculus of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, B. m. intermedia of the Southern Ocean and B. m. brevicauda (also known as the pygmy blue whale) found in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean. B. m. indica, found in the Indian Ocean, may be another subspecies. As with other baleen whales, its diet consists almost exclusively of small crustaceans known as krill

Blue whales were abundant in nearly all the oceans on Earth until the beginning of the twentieth century. For over a century, they were hunted almost to extinction by whalers until protected by the international community in 1966

Despite being so massive, this giant of the ocean feeds on some of the smallest marine life – tiny shrimp like animals called krill. A single adult blue whale can consume 36,000 kg of krill a day.

The calf is suckled in the water, drinking more than 600 litres of milk each day and gaining about 90kg every day for its first year.

A 2002 report estimated there were 5,000 to 12,000 blue whales worldwide, in at least five groups. The IUCN estimates that there are probably between 10,000 and 25,000 blue whales worldwide today

Blue whales occasionally swim in small groups but usually swim alone or in pairs. They are thought to form close attachments.

Intensive hunting in the 1900s by whalers seeking whale oil drove them to the brink of extinction. Hundreds of thousands of whales were killed.

Blue whales weigh up to 200 tonnes, or around 441,000 pounds.

Before whaling, the largest population was in the Antarctic, numbering approximately 239,000 (range 202,000 to 311,000).There remain only much smaller (around 2,000) concentrations in each of the eastern North Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Ocean groups.

Blue whales weigh up to 200 tonnes, or around 441,000 pounds.

While not nearly as old as the Earth’s oldest trees, blue whales are among the planet’s longest-lived animals. Kind of like counting tree rings, scientists count layers of wax in the ears and can determine a ballpark age.

There are two more groups in the North Atlantic, and at least two in the Southern Hemisphere. The Eastern North Pacific blue whale population had rebounded by 2014 to nearly its pre-hunting population.

Blue whales are rorquals (family Balaenopteridae), a family that includes the humpback whale, the fin whale, Bryde's whale, the sei whale, and the minke whale

The oldest they’ve discovered this way was calculated to be around 100 years old, though the average life is thought to be around 80 to 90 years.

The Blue Whale is the largest animal ever to have lived on earth. Their tongues alone can weigh as much as an elephant - their hearts, as much as a car.

The family Balaenopteridae is believed to have diverged from the other families of the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Oligocene (28 Ma ago).

Before whalers discovered the treasure trove of oil that a blue whale could provide, the numbers were generous. But with the advent of 20th century whaling fleets, nearly every last one of them was killed before receiving worldwide protection in 1967.

The Blue Whale is the largest animal ever to have lived on earth. Their tongues alone can weigh as much as an elephant - their hearts, as much as a car.

The Blue Whale is the largest animal ever to have lived on earth.

Despite being so massive, this giant of the ocean feeds on some of the smallest marine life – tiny shrimp like animals called krill. A single adult blue whale can consume 36,000 kg of krill a day.

The blue whale lineage diverged from the other rorquals during the Miocene, between 7.5 and 10.5 million years ago. However, gene flow between the species appears to have continued beyond that date. The blue whale has the greatest genetic diversity of any baleen whale, and a higher than average diversity among mammals.

Despite being so massive, this giant of the ocean feeds on some of the smallest marine life – tiny shrimp like animals called krill.