Family BALAENOPTERIDAE

(RORQUALS)

• Extremely large baleen whales with streamlined bodies, longitudinally furrowed undersides, small dorsal fin, four-digit slender pectoral flippers, and broad propulsive caudal flukes; filterfeeding specialists.

• 750-3200 cm.

• Cosmopolitan, inhabiting all the world's oceans.

• (Coastal to pelagic waters from surface to depths greater than 300 m.

• 2 genera, 8 species, 13 taxa.

• 3 species. Endangered; none Extinct. since. 1600