Re: Whales v. Dinosaurs

[Gautam Majumdar <gautam@majumdar.demon.co.uk>]

jamolnar@juno.com writes
>On Wed, 22 Apr 1998 07:38:18 -0500 ashmidt@flash.net (Ann Schmidt)
>writes:
>>>Blue Whale, 120 feet long
>>Where did you read this?  In all of the whale books I've read, none 
>>said
>>the blue whale was any longer then 110 feet.
>
>>>The candidates for heaviest animals include:
>>>Blue Whale,  to 130 U.S. tons
>>Where did you read this? I have several books that say the Blue whale 
>>can
>>weigh up too 200 tons!
>
>I've never read of any Blue whales over 130 tons.  Again, maybe
>Smithsonian can verify.
>
Guinness Book of Animal Records (1995) says that the longest blue whale
ever recorded was 33.58 m (110 ft 2 in). As for the weight, the two heaviest
(estimated) blue whales were 190 and 199 tons. No blue whale was ever
weighed whole. All estimated weights were obtained either by cutting up the
carcass into small pieces, weighing them and adding 6.5% for the lost fluids
(blood, etc) or by adding up the total number of known capacity cookers filled
with the meat, bone and blubber and again adding 6.5% for the fluids. Many of
these weights are thought to be suspect. The whale reported to be 199 tons
was originally estimated as 166 tons.

Gautam Majumdar                 gautam@majumdar.demon.co.uk