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People generally think that the largest animals ever to live on earth were the dinosaurs, but even those giants were not as huge as the blue whalethat is still alive today. Named for its blue-gray color, this huge cetacean may grow to be roughly 30.5 m (100 ft) long and weigh more that 108,000 kg (120 tons). Its close relatives include the smaller fin, humpback, sei, Bryde's, and minke whales.

The blue whale and its relatives are called baleen whales because they have a feeding structure known as baleen that takes the place of teeth. Baleen is made of a flexible material containing a protein called keratin, which is also found in your fingernails and in the hooves of horses and cows. Baleen plates hang down from the roof of the whale's mouth in rows, somewhat like the teeth of a comb. The inner edges of the baleen plates are fringed and look hairy.
A large part of the whale's diet is made up of small shrimp-like animals called krill, which the animal strains with its plates of......

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Approximate Word Count: 897
Approximate Pages: 4 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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