Biodiversity 
Brain 
Genetics 
Marine BiOLogy 
MicrobiOLogy 
PaleontOLogy 
ZoOLogy 
AnthropOLogy 
ArchaeOLogy 
Astronomy 
Climate Change 
Earth 
Physics 
Water 
A Whale of a Tale
The largest mammal at the Museum is interviewed by the largest dinosaur
Blue Whale: Thanks, Titanosaur ! The honor is all mine. You can just call me Blue.
Titanosaur: Will do, Blue. Wow, you’re big! I’m pretty big myself. I’m 37 meters (122 feet) long. But you might be even bigger.
Blue Whale: Goodness, no! You’d never be able to hang a real blue whale from the ceiling. They can weigh as much as 168 metric tons (370,000 pounds). That’s as heavy as 28 African elephants! Blue whales are the largest animals that ever lived on Earth .
Titanosaur: Wow, that’s much more massive than the dinosaur whose fossils I was molded after. With flesh and bones, scientists think the titanosaur only weighed around 70 tons (140,000 pounds).
Blue Whale: It was a shrimp compared to a blue whale! Speaking of shrimp, blue whales eat small shrimp-like creatures called krill. Each whale eat about 40 million krill a day! They take in gigantic mouthfuls of seawater with krill swimming in it. Then they shut their mouths and push the water out through their bristle-like teeth, which are made of stiff but flexible stuff called baleen. The krill get caught behind in the baleen, and dinner is served!
Blue Whale: Not all that big. It’s only 16 inches thick. But it doesn’t do all the work. It’s connected to other steel bars and structures in the ceiling, which helps transfer my weight all over.
Blue Whale: Not all that big. It’s only 16 inches thick. But it doesn’t do all the work. It’s connected to other steel bars and structures in the ceiling, which helps transfer my weight all over.
Titanosaur: That’s amazing engineering. I can hardly see the pipe at all. And it looks like you’re floating in the air. Actually, with the ceiling’s shimmering blue skylights, it looks like you’re swimming right below the surface of the ocean!
Blue Whale: When I was first constructed in the mid-1960s, scientists didn’t have a lot of evidence of what living blue whales looked like. So Museum artists modeled me after photographs of a female blue whale that was found dead in 1925 off the southern tip of South America.
Blue Whale: Lots of things. They flattened my bulgy eyes, tapered my tail, and made my blowholes more accurate. They repainted my skin. It took about 25 gallons of paint! And my favorite part: They finally gave me a belly button.
Blue Whale: Lots of things. They flattened my bulgy eyes, tapered my tail, and made my blowholes more accurate. They repainted my skin. It took about 25 gallons of paint! And my favorite part: They finally gave me a belly button.
