Inside the Flipper
Just why are whales so appealing? Part of it is the sheer size of many species, of course, but they're not the only large aquatic animals. Whale sharks, the largest fish, can reach 40 feet in length and weigh more than 20 tons, making them larger than many whales, but eliciting comparatively small interest.
Flynn thinks whales are so interesting to us because they're mammals. "We have this common heritage," he said. "If you look at the details of the anatomy, the flipper of a whale is similar on the inside to a human arm. They're highly modified, but they retain a lot of the same arrangements."
In the photo above, a boy holds his arm to a life-sized x-ray of a humpback whale flipper. The humpback's flippers can reach 19 feet long, giving them the world's longest arms.
Image: AMNH/D. Finnin
