🐋
Orca
Orcinus orca
Marine mammals · Data deficient
vs
🐋
Blue whale
Balaenoptera musculus
Marine mammals · Endangered
14 clips name both of them
424 million views between them.
Blue whale outweighs Orca 35× — 149,000 kg against 4,300 kg.
Tale of the tape
Body mass
4,300 kg
🐋 Orca · COMBINE
149,000 kg
🐋 Blue whale · COMBINE
Body length
9.23 m
🐋 Orca · COMBINE
30 m
🐋 Blue whale · COMBINE
Maximum lifespan
100 yr
🐋 Orca · 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.
Graphic clips stay hidden unless you pick Graphic.
Shared ancestry
The closest group they share is Cetacea (infraorder), home to 171 species.
They last shared an ancestor about 17 million years ago.
Estimates range from 13 to 22 million years; the figure above is the middle estimate.
About this estimate
Dates from Upham, Esselstyn & Jetz 2019, PLoS Biology 17:e3000494 (CC0).