Several types of large trees are both longer and weigh more than blue whales. The giant sequoia can grow over 80 metres tall and weigh more than 2,100 tonnes. A honey fungus in Oregon lives primarily as a diffuse cellular network in the soil and spreads over an area of 8.9 square kilometres and may weigh over 600 tons. A grove of clonal aspen trees in Utah is connected by a single root system, it covers 0.43 square kilometres, and weighs up to 6,000 tonnes.
Even though blue whales are so big, they are still mammals. There are many similar structures in whales and humans. The flipper of a whale has the same types of bones as the human arm and hand. What other similarities can you find?
Whales have specialized ears to help them hear underwater. While still being studied, structures in the whale’s head appear to conduct vibrations to the ear bones. is allows blue whales to hear sounds from as far away as the other side of the ocean.
The tympanic and periotic bones (pink) of a minke whale, and how their position relates to the ear fat (yellow). The inner corner of both sections of ear fat enters the opening of the tympanic bone. The outer corners contact the external blubber, likely allowing the whale to hear sounds coming from either side (Yamato et al. 2012).
