The '''blue whale''' (''Balaenoptera musculus''), also known as the '''sulphur-bottomed whale''' (from its yellow underside - the color coming from a coating of diatoms) or '''Sibbald's rorqual''' (after the [[Scotland|Scottish]] natural historian Robert Sibbald) is, at up to 110 feet in length and nearly 200 tons in weight, the largest animal known to have ever lived. | The '''blue whale''' (''Balaenoptera musculus''), also known as the '''sulphur-bottomed whale''' (from its yellow underside - the color coming from a coating of diatoms) or '''Sibbald's rorqual''' (after the [[Scotland|Scottish]] natural historian Robert Sibbald) is, at up to 110 feet in length and nearly 200 tons in weight, the largest animal known to have ever lived. |