Digestive system of humpback whales stretching like an accordion. They allow whales to open their mandible to 90 degrees to gulp water and prey. They expel saltwater through the baleen plates, leaving behind krill and plankton. The whale's tongue plays a vital role in filter feeding, as it is used to push the water out of its mouth while keeping the prey trapped in its baleen bristles. As humpback whales do not have teeth, their food is swallowed whole and travels down the esophagus into the preliminary stomach (known as the forestomach) to be ground. Baleen whales have a multi-chambered stomach, divided into three distinct
Flat-spired three-toothed snail among 40 species of tridopsine snails in eastern North America. Populations were divided into family trees showing the phylogenetic relationships among 18 groups of species. Nine of these groups consisted of a single species, of which "Triodopsis platysayoides" was one group. This species of snail is endemic to the United States. The flat-spired three-toothed snail is found only in West Virginia, among Upper Connoquenessing sandstone outcroppings and boulders, in a restricted area along the rim of the Cheat River gorge. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers this snail to be threatened since 1978. Little is known about the life