Drawn to scale

Side by Side

Every whale, dolphin and porpoise in this course, drawn to the same scale. Next to a blue whale, even an orca looks small.

  1. Vaquita

    Phocoena sinus up to 1.5 m · up to 54 kg Read the lesson →
  2. Harbor porpoise

    Phocoena phocoena up to 1.7 m · up to 77 kg Read the lesson →
  3. You

    An adult, about 1.8 m tall
  4. Amazon river dolphin

    Inia geoffrensis up to 2.55 m · up to 207 kg Read the lesson →
  5. Bottlenose dolphin

    Tursiops truncatus up to 4 m · up to 635 kg Read the lesson →
  6. Narwhal

    Monodon monoceros up to 4.6 m · up to 1,645 kgplus a tusk of up to 3 m
  7. Cuvier’s beaked whale

    Ziphius cavirostris up to 7 m · up to 3.1 tonnes Read the lesson →
  8. Long-finned pilot whale

    Globicephala melas up to 7.6 m · up to 2.3 tonnes Read the lesson →
  9. Orca

    Orcinus orca up to 9.8 m · up to 10 tonnes Read the lesson →
  10. A city bus

    About 12 m long
  11. Gray whale

    Eschrichtius robustus up to 14.9 m · about 41 tonnes Read the lesson →
  12. North Atlantic right whale

    Eubalaena glacialis up to 15.8 m · up to 64 tonnes Read the lesson →
  13. Sperm whale

    Physeter macrocephalus up to 18 m · up to 41 tonnesmales; females reach about 12 m Read the lesson →
  14. Humpback whale

    Megaptera novaeangliae up to 18.3 m · about 36 tonnes Read the lesson →
  15. Bowhead whale

    Balaena mysticetus up to 18.9 m · up to 91 tonnes Read the lesson →
  16. Blue whale

    Balaenoptera musculus up to 32 m · up to 170 tonnes Read the lesson →
17people lying head to toe make one blue whale
21vaquitas nose to tail make one blue whale
3.3of the biggest orcas make one blue whale
2.7city buses make one blue whale

Maximum lengths and weights: NOAA Fisheries species pages · Handbook of the Mammals of the World · NAMMCO and the Norwegian Polar Institute. Silhouettes are simplified drawings, made for this course. All sources →

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