The largest animals are the rorquals, a group of whales which rapidly engulf large aggregations of small-bodied animals along with the water in which they are embedded, with the latter subsequently expulsed via filtration through baleen. Represented by species like the blue, fin, and humpback whales, rorquals can exist in a wide range of body lengths (8–30 m) and masses (4000–190,000 kg). When feeding on krill, kinematic data collected by whale-borne biologging sensors suggest that they first oscillate their flukes several times to accelerate towards their prey, followed by a coasting period with mouth agape as the prey-water mixture is engulfed in a process approximating a perfectly inelastic collision. These kinematic data, used along with momentum conservation and time-averages of a whale's equation of motion, show the largest rorquals as generating significant body forces (10–40 kN) in order to set into forward motion enough engulfed water to at least double overall mass. Interestingly, a scaling analysis of these equations suggests significant reductions in the amount of body force generated per kilogram of body mass at the larger sizes. In other words, and in concert with the allometric growth of the buccal cavity, gigantism would involve smaller fractions of muscle mass to engulf greater volumes of water and prey, thereby imparting a greater efficiency to this unique feeding strategy.

中文翻译：

---

完全非弹性碰撞：须鲸吞没大量猎物以及对世界上最大的鲸类动物的动力学影响

最大的动物是 rorquals，这是一群鲸鱼，它们迅速吞没大量小型动物及其嵌入的水中，后者随后通过鲸须过滤被驱逐。以蓝鲸、鳍鲸和座头鲸等物种为代表，rorquals 可以存在于各种体长 (8-30 m) 和质量 (4000-190,000 kg) 中。以磷虾为食时，鲸载生物记录传感器收集的运动学数据表明，它们首先摆动尾鳍数次以加速接近猎物，然后随着猎物-水混合物被吞没的过程接近完全非弹性碰撞。这些运动学数据与鲸鱼运动方程的动量守恒和时间平均值一起使用，显示最大的 rorquals 产生显着的身体力 (10-40 kN)，以便向前运动足够多的吞没水，使总质量至少增加一倍。有趣的是，对这些方程的缩放分析表明，在较大的尺寸下，每公斤体重产生的身体力显着减少。换句话说，与颊腔的异速生长相一致，巨人症将涉及更小的肌肉质量，以吞噬更多的水和猎物，从而为这种独特的喂养策略赋予更高的效率。对这些方程的比例分析表明，在较大的尺寸下，每公斤体重产生的身体力显着减少。换句话说，与颊腔的异速生长相一致，巨人症将涉及更小的肌肉质量，以吞噬更多的水和猎物，从而为这种独特的喂养策略赋予更高的效率。对这些方程的比例分析表明，在较大的尺寸下，每公斤体重产生的身体力显着减少。换句话说，与颊腔的异速生长相一致，巨人症将涉及更小的肌肉质量，以吞噬更多的水和猎物，从而为这种独特的喂养策略赋予更高的效率。