My OperaSome physical descriptions
Thursday, November 12, 2009 3:59:13 PM
It seems that there is nothing to talk about tanks, school buses, space shuttle orbiters, basketball courts or triceratopses (a kind of three-horn-dinosaurs) if we want to mention some descriptions of a blue whale. However, the fact is that the length of a blue whale is equal to that of 3 M1A1 Abrams tanks (9.8m each), 3 school buses (12m each), a 37.2m space shuttle orbiter, a 28.7m basketball court, 5 great white sharks (6m each) or 3 triceratopses (9m each). To give another confirmation, this giant mammal is as heavy as 5 humpback whales (40 tons each), 30 T. Rex dinosaurs (6.5 tons each), 83 great white sharks (2.4 tons each), 40 elephants (5 tons each), 15 school buses (13 tons each) or 8 DC-9 airplanes (25 tons each). These facts have certainly given us an image of blue whale which is about 30m long and 200 tons heavy. So what does a blue whale look like?
Blue whale is a kind of baleen whales whose body has a shape that reduces drag and is energy efficient for swimming – fusiform or torpedo shape. So why don’t we call them torpedo whales but blue whales? The answer is that their name comes from the steel blue-gray color of their skin. Normally, blue whales have a black and gray skin with a darker dorsal (top) surface than the ventral (bottom) surface which results in the camouflage of this animal. This is to say that predators or prey have less chance to distinguish the whales from the dark ocean. And under the dark skin is the enormous body of the whale. Actually, they are said to be the largest animal in the world which is the second feature besides the color that gives whales the protection from predators. It is also the advantage for whales competing for mates. Furthermore, the whale’s body is quite big in size to produce the metabolic heat that surrounds the smaller surface of it – the skin. Therefore, it is more likely for whales to retain their body heat, which makes it easier for metabolism. And of course, their large size also helps to store energy in the form of blubber which keeps them warm in the cold water.
