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
Toothed belt in their reinforcement. Toothed belts have two failure modes, one gradual and one catastrophic. There is an increased risk of either over the lifetime of the belt, so it is common for highly-stressed belts to be given a service lifetime and to be replaced before this failure can occur. One failure mode is gradual wear to the tooth shape, which may eventually lead to slippage over rounded teeth. The belt often continues to work, but the relative timing between shafts changes. The catastrophic failure mode is caused by delamination between the belt and its fabric reinforcement. Although this may be