Abstract
THE blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) has the largest ovaries of any mammal. Of the combined weights of ovaries recorded by Mackintosh and Wheeler1 from non-pregnant mature blue whales, the heaviest is 15 lb. The greatest recorded weight of ovaries from a pregnant female appears to be 35 lb. (H. W. Symons, 1953), but this whale, which was 89 ft. in length, had two corpora lutea of pregnancy associated with a single 8-ft. female fœtus. More usually, the weight of the ovaries of a large pregnant blue whale is between 22 and 24 lb.
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Mackintosh, N. A., and Wheeler, J. G. F., Discovery Reports, 1, 384 (1929).
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LAWS, R. Giant Ovaries of a Blue Whale. Nature 173, 1003 (1954). https://doi.org/10.1038/1731003a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1731003a0
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