- Who
- Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
- What
- 440 pound(s);ounce(s)
- Where
- Not Applicable ()
The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) has the largest heart of any living creature. A heart extracted from a 24-metre (78-foot) blue whale carcass that washed up on the coast of Newfoundland in 2014 weighed 440 pounds (199.5 kilograms); it measured around 5 feet (1.5 metres) from the top of the aorta to the bottom of the lowest chamber. The first blue whale heart to have been successfully preserved, it is now on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada.
It's estimated that the blue whale's super-sized heart can pump around 58 gallons (220 litres) of blood around the body with each heart beat.
This is significantly smaller than the long-cited claims that a blue whale's heart is the same size as a VW Beetle car, but estimates have now been downgraded in light of the study of the discussed specimen.
By contrast, the largest heart for a terrestrial animal is that of the African elephant, weighing 12–21 kilograms (26–46 pounds), while the human heart is on average 310 grams (11 ounces).
