The big blue whale puts people and dinosaurs into perspective
We all grew up learning how eons ago, great creatures roamed the earth, dinosaurs as big as the school bus that carried us to class. We'd gasp and shudder, yet secretly yearn to have lived back then to see such a sight.
Little did we realize that there are modern animals which, placed next to the mightiest dinosaur, would make them look like dwarves. Even stranger, these giants live virtually next door to us, in our ocean.
Biggest of the big is the blue whale approaching 100-feet in length. Imagine a half-ton heart beating in a 100-ton body. (Its tongue alone, by the by, weighs four tons.) Put in perspective, that mean reptilian machine Tyrannosaurus rex was a meager 20-feet tall, and just 40-feet long. Brachiosaurus came closer at 50-feet tall and 85-feet long, measuring down its back and including its tail.
Oddly, whales such as the big blues don't have teeth, and don't eat big game. Instead they have baleen, solid plates that sift their favorite food, tiny krill or shrimp. Call them gulpers rather than biters. It makes Jonah's perilous trip make more sense, right?
Other baleen whales are gray, finback, humpback and right whales. Toothed whales comprise 64 species, and here's where it gets tricky. Dolphins and porpoises are among this group, as well as the pilot, sperm whale and orcas. Although they are called killer whales, orcas aren't really whales at all, but toothed dolphins.
While blues often travel in pairs, they can fall prey to packs of smaller orcas. And speaking of travels, whales are the original ocean cruisers. They live in every ocean, inhabiting surface waters. But since they require depth, it's rare to see them along sloping beaches.
Babies lack the blubber bulk of adults, so whales journey to warmer waters to give birth. But they don't mind taking a global trip to colder seas to feed, frequently traversing the ocean nearly from pole to pole.
Blue whales are not only the biggest creatures on earth they are also the loudest. Their deep whistle travels hundreds of miles, with a frequency of 188-decibels. The finest jumbo jet only emits 140-decibels. Humans strain to hit 70, even that crying baby.
The humpback is famous for its hypnotic whale songs, mysterious since they have no vocal chords. Despite possessing the widest note range among whales, when they "sing," they don't project air bubbles, the way we would underwater.
For many years, giants like blues escaped whalers, being too fast and huge to capture. Sadly, innovations like exploding harpoons and inflating harpooned whales with air to "float" them home changed that. Despite laws to protect them, rebuilding whale numbers is painfully slow and some fear, too little too late.
Sperm whales, by the way, have the largest brain on earth. Right now, whales could be passing our shores and we wouldn't know, in ancient dances we hardly comprehend. Puts us in perspective, too, doesn't it?
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