Anatomy

Whales are endothermic, or warm-blooded, mammals that occupy a cold environment. As such, they have a fairly constant body temperature, as opposed to ectotherms, which rely on the temperature of their...

Living in a watery environment, whales and other cetaceans require certain adaptations in order to survive. Whales are mammals, breathing fresh air by means of a blowhole and a pair of...

In certain whale species, teeth exist instead of the baleen plates of other whales. These whales are part of the Odontoceti suborder of Cetaceans, which eats mainly fish and crustaceans. Some...

The whale’s body is, in relation to so many other mammals, bulky, weighty and, usually, quite enormous. Still, whales are able to glide through the ocean’s waters gracefully and with ease. This...

Whales, like all cetaceans, have a thick layer of blubber right beneath their hardy skin. This blubber is vascularised adipose tissue, comprises the hypodermis and covers the entire body with the...

The blowhole is to the whale what nostrils are to a human being. It is an integral part of the way that whales breathe. The blowhole is situated on top of...