Weighing a Whale: teacher key

The Biggest Animals, grade 8 edition, written for 8th grade. Whalers' records, a giant fossil whale, dinosaurs and a snake argument: how the biggest animals are weighed and compared.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What was the heaviest blue whale on record?
   • A male in 2020, 5 tonnes
   • A female caught in 1947, about 190 tonnes (answer)
   • A calf in 1966
2. How did scientists estimate Perucetus's weight?
   • By weighing it on a scale
   • By asking whalers
   • By comparing skeleton mass with body mass in living animals (answer)
3. Why is Perucetus not simply called the biggest animal?
   • Its weight estimate is argued and it was probably shorter (answer)
   • It was found in the sea
   • Its bones were small
4. Which weighs more, an anaconda or a reticulated python of similar length?
   • The python
   • They weigh the same
   • The anaconda, which is bulkier (answer)
5. What does fragmentary mean?
   • Very large
   • Made of broken pieces (answer)
   • Very fast

Words

• tonnes: metric tons
• contender: strong rival
• fragmentary: in pieces
• baleen: whale strainer