Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The typical genus of whalebone whales, of the family Balænidæ, having the cervical vertebræ ankylosed, the fore limbs pentadactyl, the head enormous, with long black elastic baleen, the throat without furrows, and no dorsal fin. It contains the Greenland or arctic whale, B. mysticetus, and several other species found in all seas. See cuts under
ankylosis and Balænidæ.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun type genus of the Balaenidae: Greenland whales.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun type genus of the Balaenidae: Greenland whales
Etymologies
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Examples
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After the brief, friendly chat that we had, coffee was passed around, the probabilities of the _Liberdade's_ voyage discussed, and the crew cautioned against the dangers of the _balaena_ (whale), which were numerous along the coast, and vicious at that season of the year, having their young to protect.
Voyage of the Liberdade Joshua Slocum 1877
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Few extinct species of balaena are known to belong to the miocene period besides the orycterocetus of Leidy.
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Page 204 being simple, are all referred to the genus balaena.
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As we happened to be only sixty yards from one of these animals, we perceived a number of longitudinal furrows, or wrinkles, on its belly, from whence we concluded it was the species by Linnaeus named _balaena boops_.
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26 [Ear bone of whale] The first of the bones (Fig. 26) which I propose to describe is the largest, and resembles in form the same bone belonging to the right whale, (the balaena mysticetus.) In this specimen the thick involuted part is thickest at its extreme posterior end, and gradually diminishes to within three fourths of an inch of the flatish, expanded or eustachian part of the tube.
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