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Substance used by whales as a feeding filter
Answer for the clue "Substance used by whales as a feeding filter ", 6 letters:
baleen
Alternative clues for the word baleen
Word definitions for baleen in dictionaries
Wikipedia
Word definitions in Wikipedia
Baleen is a filter-feeder system inside the mouths of baleen whales . The baleen system works when a whale opens its mouth underwater and the whale takes in water. The whale then pushes the water out, and animals such as krill are filtered by the baleen ...
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. 1 (context physiology uncountable English) The bony material that makes up the plates in the mouth of the baleen whale, ''Mysticeti'', which it uses to trap its food; formerly used in corsetry 2 (context zoology countable English) a baleen whale
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 14c., "whalebone," from Old French balaine (12c.) "whale, whalebone," from Latin ballaena , from Greek phallaina "whale" (apparently related to phallos "swollen penis," probably because of a whale's shape), from PIE root *bhel- (2) "to blow, inflate, ...
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
n. a horny material from the upper jaws of certain whales; used as the ribs of fans or as stays in corsets [syn: whalebone ]
Usage examples of baleen.
There is more plankton on this world than a million times as many baleen whales could ever consume.
We cannot forcibly restrain a baleen to question it, as you well know.
Wenkoseemansa split the water in his haste to report that half the pack had encircled another baleen and urged it to the surface.
The energy cannon at the bow was purposely not aimed at the baleen, but it was manned.
Their control over the baleen had demonstrated a disturbing capacity for dangerous mischief.
Red Hawkins, having finished his harvest and replenished the aerogel and biocultures in Baleen No.
Then he felt the whale sinking back, and he saw the baleen close over him.
But then the great tongue came forward, warm and rough, driving him against the baleen plates -- it was like being smashed into a wrought-iron fence by a wet Nerf Volkswagen.
He could feel the baleen ripping the skin on his back as the tongue covered him, pressing the seawater out around him as it would strain krill, then crushing him until the last of the air exploded from his body and he blacked out.
The ivory was stained and scaling, its edges jagged with the stumps of baleen combs.
Sometimes they managed to secure the northern shark, sometimes even the toothed Hunjer whale or the less common Karl whale, which was a four-fluked, baleen whale.
Two weeks ago, some ten to fifteen sleeps ago, by rare fortune, we had managed to harpoon a baleen whale, a bluish, white-spotted blunt fin.
Before we had slept that night, and after Imnak had constructed our shelter, he removed from the supplies several strips of supple baleen, whale bone, taken from the baleen whale, the bluish blunt fin, which we had killed before taking the black Hunjer whale.
He took a long strip of baleen, about fifteen inches in length, and, with his knife, sharpened both ends, wickedly sharp.
He then tied the baleen, tensed as it was, together with some stout tabuk sinew.