Gray whales suck: skull adaptations to suction feeding in gray whales

GOOD LUCK MEG! LOVE, LAURA TRUMM

Band dad...Sorry this is late...we thought we had done this already. Thanks for reminder. To one of my favorite band daughters...continued success.

Go Blackhawks!!

Thanks!

Good luck with you studies Meghan! -Jim, Hill, Owen and Emma

I think you need to extend your hypothesis to 'If gray whales suck, ergo blue whales blow". Good Luck

#GRANOLACASH

So proud of you seester!! Keep up the hard work and become famous for me.

Meghan, I am so proud of you! I hope that your journey during your masters program is everything you dreamed about. I am here to support you. xoxo Auntie Neene

You Go Girl! How exciting....I wish you the best. Love ya Auntie Judie!

Go make all South Dakotans proud!

From Gramps

I hope you reach your goal!

Good luck!

He said go to the back of the throat or he wants a root beer float! Couldn't resist--can't wait to see everything that you do best friend!

Good luck Meghan! Keep us updated on the results. Love, Mom & Dad

Hey Oscar!! First off thank you so much for donating! That put such a smile on my face! Second, there are three kinds of feeding that occur in baleen whales: suction feeding(only gray whales), engulfment feeding (blue whales, humpback whales, etc.), and skim feeding (bowhead whales, and right whales). The type that you are thinking of is skim feeding where they swim slowly across the top of the water with their mouths open and the food and water flow into their mouth through their baleen and the food gets trapped while the water flows back out. Engulfment feeding is when the whale swims from the bottom towards the surface with their mouth open and engulf about a swimming pool sized amount of water and food and then press the water out of their mouth with strong muscles on their throats, allowing the food to become trapped against the baleen. As for suction feeding the gray whale is the only one to use this technique which you saw in the video. Its really cool stuff :)

Do they really suck up water? I was always under the impression that they just swim with their mouths open (like me) and water kind of passively flows in there....jk about the swimming with my mouth open part