Editing Blue whale (section)

=== Nomenclature ===
The genus name, ''[[Balaenoptera]]'', means ''winged whale,''<ref name=Reeves_etal_2002/> while the species name, ''musculus'', could mean "muscle" or a diminutive form of "mouse", possibly a pun by [[Carl Linnaeus]]<ref name=Reeves_etal_2002/><ref name=Calamb_Steig_1997/> when he named the species in ''[[Systema Naturae]]''.<ref name=Linnaeus_1758>{{cite book | last=Linnaeus | first=Carl | date=1758 | title=Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | location=Stockholm, Holmia | publisher=Laurentius Salvius | page=824 | author-link=Carl Linnaeus}}</ref> One of the first published descriptions of a blue whale comes from [[Robert Sibbald]]'s ''Phalainologia Nova'',<ref name=Sibbald_1692>{{cite journal | author1=Sibbald, Robert | title=Phalainologia Nova | journal=Blue Whale ("Balaenoptera Musculus") | pages=675–678 | date=1692 | author-link=Robert Sibbald}}</ref> after Sibbald found a stranded whale in the estuary of the [[Firth of Forth]], Scotland, in 1692. The name "blue whale" was derived from the Norwegian ''blåhval'', coined by [[Svend Foyn]] shortly after he had perfected the harpoon gun. The Norwegian scientist [[G. O. Sars]] adopted it as the common name in 1874.<ref name=Bortolotti_2008>{{cite book|author1=Bortolotti, D.|title=Wild Blue: A Natural History of the World's Largest Animal | publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]]|location=New York|date=2008}}</ref>

Blue whales were referred to as "Sibbald's rorqual", after Robert Sibbald, who first described the species.<ref name=Sibbald_1692/> Whalers sometimes referred to them as "sulphur bottom" whales, as the bellies of some individuals are tinged with yellow.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Bennett |first=A G |date=1920 |title=On the occurrence of diatoms on the skin of whales |url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.1920.0021 |journal=Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B |volume=91 |issue=641 |pages=352–357|doi=10.1098/rspb.1920.0021 }}</ref> This tinge is due to a coating of huge numbers of [[diatoms]].<ref name=":0" /> ([[Herman Melville]] briefly refers to "sulphur bottom" whales in his novel ''[[Moby-Dick]]''.<ref name="Melville_1851" />)