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Tue 4 May, 2004 11:13 am
ok so im thick,why do whales have blow holes is it to eject water they swallow?my 5 year old son asked me and oddly i didnt know the answer
They're mammals -- it's how they breathe. (They can hold their breaths for a long time, but have to eventually surface to breathe.)
Clearer way to put it -- blowholes are the whales' nostrils.
If you had the breath of a whale, you'd want your nose on the top of your head, too.
hey thanks i feel so stupid not knowing the answer to an obvious question
Don't worry about it! I've started getting the stumpers from my three-year-old.
cut yourself some slack, iceman71!
and remember: there's no such thing as a stupid question.
Oh yeah?
Does anybody here know where I left my keys?
uh, there they are, under that rock...
Oh, good, I can't start my horse without 'em.
Then...what is a whales nose used for?
Dun'no, but manatee have little flapper valves that close their noses. No blowhole, either.
The blow holes ARE the nostrils i.e. ARE the nose:
Quote:To make this transition, whales had to overcome a number of obstacles. First of all, they had to contend with reduced access to breathable air. This led to a number of remarkable adaptations. The whale's "nose" moved from the face to the top of the head. This blowhole makes it easy for whales to breathe in air without fully surfacing. Instead, a whale swims near the surface, arches its body so its back briefly emerges and then flexes its tail, propelling it quickly to lower depths.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/evolution5.htm
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