Antarctic Minke whale Introduction to Minke Whales The Antarctic
minke whale is one of seven species of baleen whales that are
also called rorquals. The word rorqual is Scandinavian in
origin—some say Norwegian and others say Danish—and depending on
where you hear it, it can mean wrinkled or furrowed, tubed or
pleated. In any case, it refers to the expandable throat grooves
on the whales underside that allow them to take in massive gulps
of seawater and prey while expelling the water out through the
baleen, trapping the prey against the inner surface and allowing
it to wash down the digestive tract. The Antarctic minke whale
(Balaenoptera bonaerensis) is the largest of two minke species.
The other, Balaenoptera acutorostrata (the common minke whale)
has a subspecies, B. acutorostrata ssp. (the dwarf minke whale).
It wasn’t until the 1990s that genetic analyses confirmed that
the differences in skeletal and morphological characteristics
were a result of being separated from the minke for thousands of
years. It