(You will need to register / login for access)Ĭomments below may relate to previous holders of this record. For a full list of record titles, please use our Record Application Search. This is significantly smaller than the long-cited claims that a blue whale's heart is the same size as a VW Beetle car, but estimates have now been downgraded in light of the study of the discussed specimen.īy contrast, the largest heart for a terrestrial animal is that of the African elephant, weighing 12–21 kilograms (26–46 pounds), while the human heart is on average 310 grams (11 ounces).Īll records listed on our website are current and up-to-date. It's estimated that the blue whale's super-sized heart can pump around 58 gallons (220 litres) of blood around the body with each heart beat. The first blue whale heart to have been successfully preserved, it is now on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada. A heart extracted from a 24-metre (78-foot) blue whale carcass that washed up on the coast of Newfoundland in 2014 weighed 440 pounds (199.5 kilograms) it measured around 5 feet (1.5 metres) from the top of the aorta to the bottom of the lowest chamber. The heart is scheduled for display at the ROM sometime in 2017.The blue whale ( Balaenoptera musculus) has the largest heart of any living creature. The video below from BBC and PBS’s “ Big Blue Live” event shows everything up close and personal: Again, though probably the largest such biological structure in the animal kingdom, the aorta could barely accommodate your head. The second fact to get an update was the true size of the blue whale’s aorta (which some museums make big enough for children to play in). “It’s big, but it’s smaller than people have suggested-not quite as big as a Volkswagen,” ROM CEO Mark Engstrom told the CBC. First, while certainly enormous, its heart is nowhere near the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. Right away, the scientists could see that at least two of the famous facts about the blue whale’s heart could be debunked. And before the heart was ready for study, it first needed to be thawed (it was frozen for months in transport and storage), cleaned, have all its vessels snipped and plugged, and be inflated with liquid to restore its shape. As the CBC reports, the 180-kilogram (400-pound) muscle required thousands of dollars worth of equipment to remove, and nearly 200-liters (almost 53 gallons) of formaldehyde to begin the preservation process. The other, beached in Rocky Harbour in Gros Morne National Park, gave up its heart to the scientists-it was the first blue whale heart ever preserved.īut the heart didn’t go willingly.

However, when it dives deep underwater for food, a blue whales heartbeat can drop to almost 4 8 beats per minute, and sometimes even 2 beats a minute. One whale, found in Trout River, is set to have its full skeleton on display. On average, when it is at the surface of the water, the blue whale’s heartbeat is around 25 35 beats per minute. Researchers from the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) recognized the opportunity and got out their fleshing knives. They are among the loudest animals on the planet, emitting a series of pulses, groans, and moans, and it is thought that in the right oceanographic conditions, sounds emitted by blue whales can be heard by other whales up to 1,000 miles away. Last summer, two blue whales beached themselves in Canada. It turns out that two of those facts are false, but we had to actually extract one of these mounds of muscle to find out. It is the largest animal to ever live the heart is larger than a VW Beetle-you could pass through its massive aorta like a water slide. The blue whale is an animal so gargantuan it’s defined by its stats almost as much as its biology.

Blue whale heart