Lunge feeding in rorqual whales (a group that includes blue, humpback and fin whales) is unique among mammals, but details of how it works have remained elusive. Now, scientists have solved the ...

Figure 1: Key jaw anatomy of a rorqual lunge, shown in a fin whale (B. physalus). We analysed the functional morphology of the mandibular symphysis in small, medium and large balaenopterid species ...

In a new study, scientists demonstrate that rorqual whales — whose members include the largest animal on Earth, the blue whale — have come to share very similar feeding mechanisms and jaw ...

These questions about the biology of gigantism drive our research on rorqual whales, a family of whales that all use an extreme feeding strategy called lunge filter feeding. To study lunge-feeding ...