Question: I am doing a science report on the Northern Right Whale. Could
you tell me what its scienitific name is? ( kingdom-order.ect.) Thankyou
very much!
Reply: Northern Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis)
Northern right whales grow up to 56 feet in length and are mostly black with
some white patches on their bellies. They have large heads (about one-fourth
of their total length) with strongly arched jaws and wide bodies. Their
spouts are "V"-shaped and they have no back fin. Light-colored, wart-like
skin patches on their heads are called callosities.
Right whales are currently found in the northern and southern hemispheres,
including both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Alaska right whales feed in
the northern waters of the Pacific Ocean during the summer and probably
migrate to lower latitudes to calve during the winter. They eat small
animals, called zooplankton, that in turn eat microscopic plants, called
phytoplankton. Right whales swim through patches of zooplankton with their
large mouths open. When the mouth is closed the water strains out through
the sides. The zooplankton is caught on fringed baleen plates and swallowed.
Baleen is located in the same place as our teeth, but is made of the same
substance as fingernails. The especially long baleen of right whales
provides more surface area for trapping tiny zooplankton than the shorter
baleen of other kinds of whales that consume fish and larger zooplankton.
Happy Holidays!
Kim
Kim Marshall
Executive Director
Ocean Alliance (Whale Conservation Inst. & the Voyage of the Odyssey)
191 Weston Road, Lincoln, MA 01773
781.259.0423 ext. 14 fax 259.0288
www.oceanalliance.org www.pbs.org/odyssey
Please support our efforts to conserve whales and their ocean environment
through research and education :)
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