Greenland whale. The bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) is a species of the right whale family Balaenidae, in suborder Mysticeti and genus Balaena. A stocky dark-colored whale without a dorsal fin, it can grow to 66 feet in length and can weigh from 83 to 110 tons. It lives entirely in fertile Arctic and sub-Arctic waters, unlike other whales that migrate to feed or reproduce to low latitude waters. Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The Cetacean suborder, Mysticeti (baleen whales), comprises filter feeders who eat small organisms caught by straining seawater through a comblike structure found in the mouth called baleen. All cetaceans have forelimbs modified as fins, a tail with horizontal flukes, and nasal openings (blowholes) on top of the head. Whales inhabit all the world's oceans and number in the millions. Human hunting of whales from the seventeenth century until 1986 radically reduced the populations of some whale species. They are long-lived, humpback whales living for up to 77 years, while bowhead whales may live for more than a century. Natürliche Abbildungen der merkwürdigsten by Georg Heinrich Borowski and Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Herbst, 1780-89.
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Album / Science Source / Biodiversity Heritage Library