BALEEN WHALE

The skeleton of the Baleen Whale is suspended from the ceiling along the centre of the hall, and a skull of another specimen of the same species is mounted on the wall space opposite to the front end of the entire skeleton of the whale. The skeleton of the whale, which is exhibited is a medium sized one, measuring over 60 feet in length and was washed ashore in Mangalore in 1874 AD. This species (Balaenoptera indica = Balaenoptera musculus) is distributed, ranging over the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea, it belongs to the great group known as the Baleen whales, characterised by the presence of a brush-like structure composed of numerous plates of baleen or whale bone, serving to strain the water from the small crustaceans and molluscs on which these whales feed.