A Blue Whale has a heart roughly the size of a what?

Blue whales are the largest animals on our planet. An adult blue whale may weight more than 150 tons, which is more than the weight of an ordinary house or cottage! No wonder all the parts of a whale's body are that heavy and large in size. An enormous heart pumps about 10 tons of blood through the massive blue whale body. A blue whale aorta (the main blood vessel) alone is large enough for a human to swim through it. And an African elephant, the largest land animal, can easily fit in the whale's mouth!

More Info: www.afsc.noaa.gov

Test your knowledge

What are your thoughts on this subject?

105 Comments

Kathy Rossignol

This answer is wrong. While their hearts are big 400lbs.....they are not the size of a Volkswagen beetle 3000lbs. The blue whale is the largest animal ever to have lived. One urban legend says that its heart is as big as a Volkswagen Beetle! For the first time, scientists have tested this claim. Is it true? No. A Volkswagen Beetle measures about 14 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 5 feet tall. It weighs about 3,000 pounds. A blue whale’s heart is about 5 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 5 feet tall. It weighs about 400 pounds

Gold Toy Box

While the VW analogy is proven to be less than accurate, it's the closest of the other offered answers.

Nigel Usher

This is NOT true. The only Blue Whale heart to have been removed from a dead animal proved that it was smaller than thought. It measured 5ft and it's Aorta was much smaller than it states here as well. Get your facts straight if you are going to post questions on here!

JRW

The stated answer may be incorrect, but, it is the closest of the given options.

Chris Brown

I have read elsewhere that the heart of a blue whale is about the weight of a full-grown male African elephant its arteries are big enough to swim through...

Armadillo

Marty Marshall, I don't know if the heart is quite as large as a golf cart but was surprised to learn it could fit an 🐘 in it's mouth, so no worries, it could catch a golf cart on there as well.

sharalp

Karin Johansson, NOAA isn't reliable??

Marty Marshall

A blue whale’s heart is about 5 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 5 feet tall. It weighs about 400 pounds. One researcher said the blue whale heart was actually the size of a small golf cart—but that’s not really true, either. It looks like most golf carts weigh at least 500-600 pounds.