I need your help to understand the meaning of a few words (descend, feeding apparatus) and check the word choice. Thank you.
1)According to the speaker, education is the most successful way of combating risks (threats?) to endangered species. The interviewee explains that he works with two main categories of whales; the baleen whales, and the toothed whales.
2)There are 13 species of baleen whales. The large blue whale, for example, can be over 33 metres long and weigh up to as much as 32 elephants.
3) They are named for their feeding apparatus, baleen, which descend (descends) from the roof of the mouth. 4) Baleen is made of hard but flexible material, similar to that of human fingernails, rooted in the animal’s upper jaw.
5)(What is the meaning of “descend” here? to move from a higher level to a lower one OR to be related to a person or group who lived a long time ago:?). What is a “feeding apparatus”? (An apparatus through which whales get their food?)