Dear WW: The whales are divided into two big groups. The odontocetes have teeth, and can eat such things as giant squid. The other group, the mysticetes have giant strainers like combs made of baleen, strong but flexible teeth to strain out of the water tiny creatures they feed on. This was the material from which corsets and hoopskirts were made of long ago. In looking up baleen in dictionary, I was surprised to find it comes from the Greek word for whale - phallus - said to have been suggested by the shape of the whale. (Somebody was thinking big!)