What are the throat grooves on a whale for?

Answer 1

The throat grooves (ventral pleats) expand when feeding, allowing a large volume of water and prey (e.g. krill, small schooling fish) to enter the buccal cavity (mouth). The grooves are contracted and the water forced out, trapping the prey in the hairy fringe of the baleen. The prey is then swallowed.

Answer 2

The simple answer is that whales have fins because they help them swim.

However, if we say that, we've somehwhat dodged the question. "Why" is a question concerned with causality, and this hasn't been answered.

From an evolutionary perspective, whales probably have fins for the same reason fish, or sharks, or any number of other diverse seawater animals have fins: because fins increased their chances of their ancestors' survival. The ones with fins would live on and propagate their fin mutations. Presumably, fins were useful to their ancestors for propelling themselves through the water in which they lived, allowing them to both escape predators and catch prey.

This does give a causal explanation, though it may be somewhat unsatisfying. For better or worse, this is the self-imposed limitation of the reductionist scientific framework. In it, the most one can do is to trace causes back to the origins of the universe, of which the dominant theory is known as the Big Bang.

Some are not satisfied with a purely causal explanation, and instead would like an explanation that suggests purpose. This implies external, possibly supernatural sentient forces, and religion can be considered a suitable framework for attributing such purpose to the world we live in. The Christian explanation, for example, might be that whales have fins because God created them with fins. Other religions may have similar explanations, but not necessarily.

Answer 3

Humpback whales have 14-35 throat grooves that run from the chin to the navel. These grooves allow their throat to expand during the huge intake of water

Answer 4

Large species like blue and fin whales are called "baleen" whales, due to the structure of plates in the mouth. The whale catches food by opening its mouth and swimming through a school of tiny crustaceans called krill. In order to do this, it must also take in a huge amount of water, which it then pushes back out while the baleen plates trap the tiny krill. The slits are folds of skin that allow that massive expansion of the mouth as the whale takes in the krill and water.

Answer 5

THey Help THem By Striking planton

Answer 6

They help the whales to filter out water as they take in water and krill.

Answer 7

they are called ventral pleats