Whales may be known as gentle giants, but they still have a looming presence as the world’s loudest and largest animals. The Antarctic blue whale can weigh up to 400,000 pounds and stretches to 98 ...

A pygmy blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda, swims in the Banda Sea, Indonesia. This huge cetacean reaches up to 24 meters in length and makes up to about half of all blue whales alive.© ...

Whales are mighty. Blue whales, for example, aren’t only the largest animal on Earth, but as far as we know, they’re the largest animal that’s ever existed on Earth—and that includes dinosaurs.