The preserved heart of a blue whale weighs 181 kg
Blue whales are the largest animals ever known to have lived on Earth. These magnificent marine mammals that rule the oceans, weigh as much as 200 tons (approximately 33 elephants) and have gigantic hearts, according to World Wildlife Fund. Recently, Harsh Goenka, who is known for sharing interesting posts on Twitter, posted a picture of a blue whale's heart. Notably, the enormous heart has been preserved and displayed at Canada's Royal Ontario Museum.
Mr Goenka shared the picture and wrote, ''This is the preserved heart of a blue whale which weighs 181 kg. It measures 1.2 meters wide and 1.5 meters tall and its heartbeat can be heard from more than 3.2 km away.''
See the picture here:
Internet users were left fascinated to see the picture and shared a variety of responses.
One user wrote, ''Whoaaaaaaa universe has its own creativity from plants to animals to humans . From an ant to a whale how beautifully created.'' Another commented, ''Wow! Now we should mention The Whale's Heart instead a lions heart.'' A third added, ''Oh, this is interesting. Thank you for sharing.''
According to a Wired report, the carcass of a female blue whale washed ashore off the coast of Rocky Harbour, a town in western Newfoundland, Canada in 2014. Thankfully, it was in good enough condition that enabled technicians at the Royal Ontario Museum to preserve it.
''Its sheer size alone accelerates decomposition, so it's remarkable we got to salvage a heart,'' Jacqueline Miller, who led the first-of-its-kind preservation effort said. ''It took four staff onsite plus myself to push the heart out of the thoracic cavity, through a window created through the ribs and into a dumpster bag,'' she added.
The preserved whale heart was finally put on display for the public in 2017 after three years of intensive work which included extracting the heart, dilating, shipping and plastination.
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