Blue whales are ??????? ???????? ????among the biggest creatures on the planet today. But a few million years ago, they were practically petite.
Scientists think they know why these whales gained so much weight.
Environmental changes likely altered the distribution of whales' food supplies in a way that rewarded gargantuan creatures, a new study found. That likely prompted blue whales to balloon ten-fold, from roughly 10 feet long to their present size of up to 100 feet.
SEE ALSO: Dozens of humpback whales have died in the last year and nobody knows whyScientists traced the transformation of whale sizes back nearly 30 million years. They found that very large whales only appeared along several branches of the family tree some 2 million to 3 million years ago, according to a study published this week in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
"We live in a time of giants," Jeremy Goldbogen, an author of the paper and a marine biologist at Stanford University, said in a press release. Baleen whales, the filter-feeding beasts that include blue whales, "have never been this big, ever."
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable Goldbogen and colleagues from the University of Chicago and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History measured more than 140 museum specimens of fossilized whales. Using a statistical model, they found that several distinct lineages of baleen whales developed independently of one another starting around 4.5 million years ago.
"...All of a sudden -- 'boom' -- we see them get very big, like blue whales," Nicholas Pyenson, an author of the paper and the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian, told the New York Times.
"It's like going from whales the size of minivans to longer than two school buses," he said.
Their expansion coincided with the early development of ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere, which likely changed the distribution of the tiny krill and plankton that whales eat.
Up until then, the minuscule prey would've been fairly evenly distributed throughout the ocean. As filter feeders, whales can swallow swarms of crustaceans in a single massive gulp, but they were still only moderately large marine mammals.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable As glaciers formed, however, run-off from the new ice caps would've washed nutrients into coastal waters at particular times of the year, boosting food supplies seasonally, instead of year-round. The Earth's cooling poles also affected ocean currents in a way that caused dense patches of prey to become more predominant.
This all created a seafood feast for the whales. But it meant they had to travel farther and work harder to find each meal. Being large meant the whales could not only swallow more prey when they found it, but they could also migrate very long distances to sustain that all-you-can-eat feeding style.
Researchers said the new findings on ancient whales could shed light on what's happening on the planet today.
Human-caused global warming is accelerating the thinning and retreating of sea ice, causing glaciers to melt at unprecedented rates, and warming and acidifying the oceans -- not over the course of millennia, but mere centuries.
"With these rapid changes, does the ocean have the capacity to sustain several billion people and the world’s largest whales?" Pyenson said in a press release. "The clues to answer this question lie in our ability to learn from Earth’s deep past... embedded in the fossil record."
Torrance Optometrist Receives ‘Best in South Bay’ Award for 9th Year
Disney+ features content warnings for 'outdated cultural depictions'
Tesla casually updates Model 3 to be devilishly quick
TikTok tests new feature to make it easier to buy stuff you don't need
Celebrate Aiko Herzig Yoshinaga’s Life on Sept. 2 at JANM
'Joker' is the first R
10 gifts that your rude cat may or may not ignore
Photos show the devastating impact of eastern Australia's bushfires
Shinnen Kai and Keiro Kai at VJCC
Ricky Gervais to host the Golden Globes in 2020
Two Gardena Police Officers Named in Federal Indictment
Christine Blasey Ford says testimony was 'simply' her duty as a citizen
Why you should watch 'Sister Act 2' on Disney+
Lady Gaga doesn't 'remember' ARTPOP but her rather upset fans do
Muratsuchi to Reintroduce Legislation to Halt New Federal Offshore Drilling
You can now remove things from Facebook's shortcut bar, including the red dots
Facebook bug secretly turns on iPhone camera
Apple's maxed out 16
Discussing Sexism, Sexual Assault and Violence in the JA Community
Apple's maxed out 16
Best RAM for Intel 12thScientists discover where the huge dinosaurBest coffee machine deal: Save over $200 on the De'Longhi ElettaPSV vs. Girona 2024 livestream: Watch Champions League for freeIf aliens harnessed solar power, could we detect them? NASA investigated.Speeding space object triggered a warning. It wasn't an asteroid.Swiatek vs. Gauff 2024 livestream: Watch WTA Finals for freeCreature with giant eggs filmed thousands of feet underseaSurprise in NASA's asteroid rocks hints Bennu came from ocean worldExec from Chinese automaker GAC met Brazilian president, planning EV factory · TechNode Cop stops driverless car, driverless car seems to flee, confusion ensues 'Wordle' alternatives for movie fans: 'Framed' and 'Actorle' iPhone alarm sounds, ranked Netflix introduces 'two thumbs up' in attempt to refine its recommendation algorithm 'The Office' stars chat about Dwight's Earth Day character, Recyclops The Academy bans Will Smith from the Oscars for 10 years following Chris Rock slap How to see your oldest comments on Instagram Amazon Prime Video's 10 best hidden gems for when you need something new to you Watch Elon Musk's TED talk, in which he explains his Twitter bid Wordle today: Here's the answer, hints for April 17
0.1465s , 10027.7578125 kb
Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【??????? ???????? ????】Enter to watch online.How whales went from just big to absolutely enormous,Global Perspective Monitoring
