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Ancient life · Mammals and their kin

Blue whale

The largest animal ever to live.

Up to 110 feet (about 33.5 m) and 330,000 pounds. Beside a person 1.75 m tall; ticks every metre.Body shape drawn for this site

When
Alive today
Where
Oceans worldwide
Size
Up to 110 feet (about 33.5 m) and 330,000 pounds
Two blue whales from the air, long and pale blue under the sea surface, one blowing a spout.
Two blue whales seen from the air in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, California.CINMS - Two Blue Whales Aerial Photo (27877575362) by National Marine Sanctuaries, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized.

The blue whale is not a fossil. It is here because it is the largest animal ever to live on our planet. It can be up to about 33.5 metres long.

It is a baleen whale, one of the descendants of the four-legged Pakicetus. It is endangered.

Blue whale640 Manow
Blue whale: still alive today. That is 0.0% of the way back to the Earth’s birth.Periods from the ICS chart

Read more in The age of mammals.

Also in mammals and their kin

  • Dimetrodon A sail-backed hunter on our side of the family tree
  • Brasilodon Possibly the oldest mammal, or one of its closest relatives
  • Morganucodon A tiny early mammal named after Glamorgan
  • Pakicetus One of the first whales, with four legs
  • Dorudon An early whale that lived wholly in the sea
  • Woolly mammoth An Ice Age elephant of the far north

Sources