Rorqual

Humpback Whale

The rorqual ( Balaenopteridae; according Balaenae " whale " is derived from the ancient Greek φάλ ( λ ) αινα "Whale " ) are a family of baleen whales. These include the largest of all whales and thus the largest living animals at all. The nine species are 7-31 m long. From the right whales, the other large family of baleen whales, they are distinguished by the following features: presence of a dorsal fin, a slimmer figure, much shorter and wider Barten, as well as the eponymous throat grooves.

The furrows are longitudinal folds which run from the throat of the chest to the middle of the body; each of the 10-100 is deep furrows about 5 cm; they expand when the whale opens its mouth to absorb water so that there is a considerable enlargement of the pharynx. This allows the whale within a few seconds to absorb more water than its own body weight. When pressing out the water, which takes about a minute, then about ten kilograms of krill and fish stay at the large whales left for each operation. Within a single dive can this happen several times. This is for the whale, however, very stressful, which is why these dives are relatively short (15-20 minutes).

Rorquals open their mouth to an angle of 90 °, which is made ​​possible by a special design of the jaw. The head and jaw take about a quarter of the total body length.

Furrows whales are fast swimmers. They make great walks in which they alternate between warm and cold climates. Therefore rorquals are in all major oceans common, but avoid small side seas.

All rorquals been heavily hunted for their Trans and their meat. Although they were considered because of their thinner layer of fat as less valuable than the right whales, but after the whales were largely exterminated, you went to hunt rorquals over. This especially the large species such as the blue whale, fin whale and humpback whale were brought to the brink of extinction. Since 1986 they are protected, but minke whales are still hunted. Sei whales are the provisions on protection still hunted in defiance as part of a controversial research program of the International Whaling Commission (IWC ) of Japan and Iceland - although in unequal smaller scale.

The rorqual always played an important ecological role. Over 100 million tons of krill per year were eaten by large whales in the Antarctic region alone. The absence of the whales, the mass of krill increased considerably and allowed other animals such as the crab -eating an inventory explosion.

System

• Genus Megaptera Humpback whale ( Megaptera novaeangliae )

• Minke whale group Minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata )
• Southern Minke Whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis )

• Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus )
• Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
• Omurawal (Balaenoptera omurai )

• Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera brydei )
• Sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis)
• Edenwal (Balaenoptera edeni )

Two of these species, the Edenwal and Omurawal recently described, were only recognized in recent times. Genetic analysis of their tissue samples showed that they are separate species.