Digestive system of humpback whales Digestive system of humpback whales The digestive system of humpback whales ("Megaptera novaeangliae") is adapted to digest tiny crustaceans such as krill, plankton, and small fish (including herring and mackerel) which the whale filters from the ocean using its baleen, a sieve-like structure in the upper jaw. Humpback whales belong to the parvorder baleen whales, which are carnivorous, seasonal feeders. The baleen, a sieve-like structure in the upper jaw made of keratin, is used to filter plankton, among other food sources, from the water. Ventral grooves are expandable concave furrows that line a whale's throat and have the peculiarity of
Baleen whale Baleen whale Baleen whales (systematic name Mysticeti), known earlier as whalebone whales, form a parvorder of the infraorder Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises). They are a widely distributed and diverse parvorder of carnivorous marine mammals. Mysticeti comprise the families Balaenidae (right and bowhead whales), Balaenopteridae (rorquals), Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale), and Eschrichtiidae (the gray whale). There are currently 15 species of baleen whale. While cetaceans were historically thought to have descended from mesonychids, (which would place them outside the order Artiodactyla), molecular evidence supports them as a clade of even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla). Baleen whales split from toothed whales (Odontoceti)