The Incredible World of Whales and Their Secret Deep Ocean Lives

Whales are truly magnificent creatures that spend their entire existence in the vast oceans of the world. They possess a wide array of astonishing qualities that set them apart from other marine life. Even though their physical appearance is completely different from humans we actually share many biological traits. These marine giants are genuine mammals just like us. They breathe atmospheric air and possess tiny amounts of hair on their bodies. They are warm blooded animals that give birth to live infants and nourish their young with milk. Whales are uniquely graceful and mysterious beings that form deep social bonds and friendships. They can innovate and experience grief and play together in the deep sea. They also create beautiful songs and cooperate closely during their daily activities.

Diversity and Types of Ocean Cetaceans

The exact number of whale types remains a mystery because researchers regularly discover new species and subspecies. Marine biologists recently recognized an entirely new kind of baleen whale in the Gulf of Maine. Experts currently recognize ninety distinct species of whales and dolphins and porpoises under the collective name of cetaceans. This large group is broadly separated into two major categories based on whether they possess teeth or baleen plates. Baleen whales are often called the great whales because of their massive overall physical size. There are fifteen known species of baleen whales in our oceans today. These creatures use specialized baleen plates in their mouths to separate plankton and krill and small fish from the surrounding saltwater. Toothed whales make up the vast majority of cetacean species. This group includes the gigantic sperm whale as well as all dolphins and porpoises. Their teeth are not meant for chewing food. For example the long spiral tusk of a male narwhal is actually an oversized tooth. The distinction between whales and dolphins is not strictly scientific. People usually call the larger species whales and the smaller species dolphins or porpoises. However the famous killer whale is actually the largest member of the dolphin family. Dolphins generally have larger bodies and more pronounced snouts with cone shaped teeth. Porpoises are smaller with flatter faces and spade shaped teeth.

Extraordinary Feeding Strategies in the Sea

Toothed whales and baleen whales capture their food in completely different ways. Toothed whales rely on grabbing or sucking their prey while baleen whales use skimming or gulping or vacuuming methods. Every toothed whale species has a unique arrangement of teeth depending on its lifestyle. Killer whales use their sharp teeth to grab moving prey tightly. The long tusk of a male narwhal functions as a sensitive organ to taste the surrounding water. None of these whales chew their meals because they lack flat molars. They swallow their food completely whole or in large torn chunks. These animals use highly advanced sonar systems called echolocation to find fish and squid and octopus in the dark water. Some killer whales even hunt large sharks and other marine mammals. Baleen whales have hundreds of overlapping plates hanging down from their upper jaws instead of teeth. These flexible plates are made of keratin which is the exact same protein found in human fingernails. The hairy inside fringe of these plates earned them the scientific name of moustached whales. This structure acts as a perfect colander to strain out water while keeping the food. Skimming whales swim through dense patches of plankton with their mouths wide open to catch tiny organisms. Gulping whales possess large pleats from their lower jaw to their bellies that expand enormously with water. They close their jaws and push the water out through the baleen to trap fish. Gray whales are specialized suckers that vacuum up mud from the ocean floor to filter out tiny bottom dwelling creatures.

Massive Records and the Ultimate Ocean Giants

The blue whale is the largest creature to ever exist on our planet. This animal is far bigger than any dinosaur that walked the earth. These giants can reach a length of nearly thirty meters which is longer than two standard school buses parked end to end. Ocean water supports their massive weight throughout their entire lives. Blue whales in the southern hemisphere grow larger than those in the north and females are generally bigger than males. Commercial whaling in the past made these magnificent animals incredibly rare and pushed some populations to total extinction. The largest mothers on earth naturally give birth to the largest babies. A newborn blue whale measures seven meters in length and weighs as much as three tons. This is roughly the size of a full grown adult hippopotamus. The baby drinks up to five hundred and seventy liters of fat rich mother milk every single day. The milk consists of thirty-five to fifty percent fat. This rich diet allows the calf to gain more than four kilograms every single hour. The young whale doubles its length by the time it is weaned at seven months old. Mothers and calves stay together for about a year before the young whale becomes independent. These giants reach sexual maturity within ten years and can live for more than eighty years in the wild.

Super Sized Brains and Deep Diving Adaptation

The sperm whale possesses the largest brain of any animal on earth. Their brain volume is more than five times larger than a human brain and weighs around nine kilograms. Humans only developed large brains relatively recently in evolutionary history. In contrast the sperm whale brain has remained virtually unchanged for fifty-five million years. These whales have massive heads that make up one third of their entire body length. Most of the space inside the head contains a massive cavity filled with a fine yellowish oil called spermaceti. Early whalers hunted these creatures extensively to harvest this oil for lamps and candles and cosmetics. This specialized oil organ plays a vital role in the whale echolocation system. It allows them to navigate the deep ocean and see their surroundings using powerful sound waves.

The Complex Mystery of Majestic Whale Songs

A whale song consists of a long and carefully patterned sequence of underwater sounds. These songs are not instinctual because whales must learn the melodies from each other over time. Many species sing including blue whales and fin whales and humpback whales. Male humpback whales are the most famous musicians of the sea. Their beautiful songs can last for thirty minutes and span seven full octaves across the musical scale. All males in the same breeding region sing the exact same sequence of sounds each year. They repeat these melodies continuously during the winter mating season and gradually modify them over time. Fin whales produce much simpler songs that consist of repetitive low frequency pulses. Scientists believe these deep sounds serve as a mating display to attract females. Blue whales vocalize at incredibly low frequencies and their voices are becoming deeper every year. They can produce sounds reaching one hundred and eighty-six decibels which can travel across vast ocean distances. Bowhead whales possess the most diverse songs of all and frequently improvise like jazz musicians. They sing constantly under the Arctic ice during the dark polar winter from October through April. They create dozens of entirely new melodies every single year and completely change their tunes over time.

The Incredible Evolutionary Journey from Land to Sea

The anatomy of modern whales provides clear evidence that their ancient ancestors once lived on land. They still breathe atmospheric air and nurse their young with milk. Their paddle shaped flippers contain internal bone structures that look exactly like fingers. Whale embryos even grow tiny hind limbs that completely disappear before they are born. Some species still retain floating pelvic bones inside their bodies. Hippopotamuses are the closest living relatives of whales but they are not their direct ancestors. Both animals evolved from four legged hoofed mammals that walked the earth fifty million years ago. Whale ancestors gradually moved into the ocean and transitioned into swimming creatures over an eight million year period. Archaeologists discovered fossils of an ancient whale called Basilosaurus which was initially mistaken for a dinosaur. This prehistoric mammal had an elongated body with small back legs and front flippers. Its nostrils were located halfway up its snout and it had modern whale ear bones. Over time these land animals adapted to shallow water to escape danger and find food. Their front legs transformed into flippers and thick blubber replaced their fur to keep them warm. Their tails grew stronger for propulsion while their nostrils shifted to the top of their heads to form blowholes.

Century Old Survivors of the Frozen Arctic

Bowhead whales spend their entire lives in the freezing waters of the Arctic region. They are slow moving creatures that do not reach maturity until they are twenty to twenty-five years old. Researchers now know that bowhead whales are among the longest lived mammals on the planet. Old stone harpoon points have been discovered embedded deep inside their blubber layers. Analysis of their eye tissues also confirms their incredible longevity. These lines of evidence prove that bowhead whales easily live for one hundred and fifty years and can sometimes exceed two centuries of life. One whale captured by indigenous hunters was found to have a harpoon point lodged in its neck from the late nineteenth century. This artifact proved the whale had survived in the icy seas for well over one hundred years.