Whales could fit a tiny human inside

Seriously, a whole person fits inside some whales. Here's the breakdown

By Smartasaurus· 1 min read Wild

Imagine sitting in a submarine

Mechanism call

Take a position: what's actually doing the work here?

One of these is closer than the rest. Commit before you find out.

The short version

Seriously, a whole person fits inside some whales. Here's the breakdown
Gravity is the whale's biggest enemy.
Even more bizarre, the blue whale has the largest tongue on the planet, which alone weighs as much as an entire African elephant.

The heartbeat of a blue whale can be detected by sonar from over two miles away. This massive pump weighs 400 pounds and moves 60 gallons of blood with every single contraction.

The aorta, the main artery leaving the heart, is over nine inches wide. This makes it large enough for a small child to swim through, though the pressure would be lethal.

Gravity is the whale's biggest enemy. On land, a heart this size would collapse under its own weight, but the buoyancy of the ocean acts like a support suit. This allows the heart to beat as slowly as twice per minute when the whale dives deep.

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