what are the parts of a whale
Answers
Answer:
Blowhole
The blowhole is the nose of the whale. It is located behind the bump (splash gaurd) on the top of the whales head. The splash guard protects the whale from getting water into its blowhole.
Dorsal Fin
Dorsal means topside. The dorsal fin is beleived to act as a keel to keep the whale oriented upright. The male killer whale has a dorsal fin six feet high. However, some wha.es (the gray and white whales) have no dorsal fin at all.
Ear
The ear opening is a tiny, nonfunctional hole located behind and slightly above the eye. Sound is one of the main ways that whales perceive their envirorment. They communicate with each other and use sound to navigate. The sound vibrations travel through the whale's body to its inner ear and are not received through the ear opening.
Eye
The eyes are located on each side of the body, near the base of the mouth. The whale can only see to the side, not directly in front of itself. Since visibility in the ocean is so limited, sight is not an important sense. A whale's eye is roughly the size of a grapefruit.
Flipper
The flipper is equivalent to the human hand and arm and is used for turning. Humpback whales have large flippers which they use for locomotion.
Flukes
The tail flukes are lobes on a whale's tail and are the primary structure used for swimming. The flukes move up and down (vertically). Most fish move their tails sideways (horizontally).
Mammary Glands
Mammary Glands are milk producing organs situated inside the female whale's body. (This location maintains the streamlined shape of the whale.) The glands are located on the ventral side (underside) of the whale, close to the tail. If a young calf wants to nurse, the mother turns slightly on its side. The young calf bumps the mammary gland with its mouth, and the milk is ejected. A blue whale calf may gain close to 200 pounds a day, just drinking its mother's milk.
Rostrum
The rostrum is the long flat ridge on the dorsal side of a baleen whale's head, extending from the blowhole to the tip of its mouth.
Ventral Pleats
The ventral pleats are grooves on the underside of a whale's mouth that expand when feeding so the mouth can hold more water.