Baleen
Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, John McBrewster
Baleen or whalebone enables baleen whales to feed. These whales do not have teeth, but instead have rows of baleen plates in the upper jaw – flat, flexible plates with frayed edges, arranged in two parallel rows, looking like combs of thick hair. Baleen is not bone, but is composed of keratin, the same substance as hair, horn, claws and nails. Whales use these combs for filter feeding. Whales are the only vertebrate group to use this method of feeding in great abundance (flamingos and crabeater seals use similar methods, but do not have baleen), and it has allowed them to grow to immense sizes. The blue whale, the largest animal alive and probably the largest animal to ever have lived, is a baleen whale. Depending on the species of...
ISBN: 978-6-1306-7446-5
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Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011