🐾
Humpback whale
Megaptera novaeangliae
Marine mammals · Least concern
vs
🐋
Blue whale
Balaenoptera musculus
Marine mammals · Endangered
39 clips name both of them
1 million views between them.
Blue whale outweighs Humpback whale 5.0× — 149,000 kg against 30,000 kg.
Tale of the tape
Body mass
30,000 kg
🐾 Humpback whale · COMBINE
149,000 kg
🐋 Blue whale · COMBINE
Body length
14 m
🐾 Humpback whale · COMBINE
30 m
🐋 Blue whale · COMBINE
Maximum lifespan
95 yr
🐾 Humpback whale · COMBINE
110 yr
🐋 Blue whale · COMBINE
Bars are sized against the larger of the two figures.
Animals caught on camera
Real footage of the animals on this site — hunting, fighting, and getting on with it.
Shared ancestry
The closest group they share is Cetacea (infraorder), home to 171 species.
They last shared an ancestor about 8.9 million years ago.
Estimates range from 6.5 to 12 million years; the figure above is the middle estimate.
About this estimate
Dates from Upham, Esselstyn & Jetz 2019, PLoS Biology 17:e3000494 (CC0).