Posted on 05/24/2017 11:12:25 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
BLUE whales and other underwater leviathans became giants when climate change introduced them to binge-eating, research has shown.
At more than 100ft long, the blue whale is the largest vertebrate animal that has ever lived.
The reason for the size expansion of the blue whale and other baleen whales was food, the researchers believe.
Dr Graham Slater, a member of the US team from the University of Chicago, said: We might imagine that whales just gradually got bigger over time, as if by chance, and perhaps that could explain how these whales became so massive.
But our analyses show that this idea doesnt hold up the only way that you can explain baleen whales becoming the giants they are today is if something changed in the recent past that created an incentive to be a giant and made it disadvantageous to be small.
Co-author Dr Jeremy Goldbogen, from Stanford University in California, said: "We live in a time of giants. Baleen whales have never been this big, ever."
Another advantage of large size was the ability to make epic journeys of thousands of miles to take advantage of seasonally abundant food supplies, said the scientists.
"But today's oceans and climate are changing at geological scales in the course of human lifetimes.
"With these rapid changes, does the ocean have the capacity to sustain several billion people and the world's largest whales?
(Excerpt) Read more at thesun.co.uk ...
why didn’t humans become giants, then? or hummingbirds? or ants?
That’ll just put me in the doldrums................
Does this theory explain the WIDE LOADS we see cruising through Walmart on scooters?
There is nothing its gods can not do.
Science Denier! Science Denier! (everything that is bad is your fault -- you should be made to wear a Big Fat yellow star on all your clothing so everyone will KNOW what you ARE, and not be allowed to come out at night! - or else!)
Imagine the gaseous farts from all that seaweed...
Eureka! Bermuda Triangle Mystery solved! (it's a whale of a windbaggery tail)
Pretty much...............
It's true. Back in the days of whaling, in Melville's day, whales were actually no bigger than a good sized trout. That's the real reason it took them as long as three years to fill the holds with whale oil.
Climate bullsh!t, is there anything it can’t do?
LOL. So they are whales, and they ADAPTED to their environment. Just like anything else does; and has done since creation.
Somebody tell Jonah.
Bottom line: WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE BECAUSE WHALES ARE (supposedly) BIGGER THAN EVER SO AS NOT TO LEAVE ROOM FOR HUMANS! Last I checked, whales live in the oceans and humans live on land. Are they going to evolve so as to create a whale tsunami that crushes our coastal cities? Solution: go whale hunting or ignore the latest anti-human screed from pseudo-scientists.
We were all gonna die from the following scientific theories:
1. Alternating current will kill if used for industry;
2. Direct current is the future;
3. Surviving the coming Ice Age;
4. Nature v Nurture (young boys and girls are the same);
5. Alcar will kill us all if you eat apples;
6. The disappearing ozone layer is the end;
7. Billions will die from the Population Explosion;
8. Black holes are real;
9. Black holes are theory and unproven;
10.Human caused global warming will eliminate the artic ice by 2010;
11.A new Ice Age may be approaching;
Feel free to add any unproven hypothesis by the experts.
LOL!
No, but according to these brainiacs, you will be a 25' giant in no time.
Ha! When I was little we read Grimms Brothers fairy tales... and Hans Christian Anderson stories...
Much more interesting but not NEARLY as fantastic
....With these rapid changes, does the ocean have the capacity to sustain several billion people and the world’s largest whales?..
Yes, unless we are hit by a big asteroid, Yellowstone erupts, space aliens invade, or Democrats win lots of elections./s
Horizontally or vertically?.................
These folks can pull anything out of their arse. Anything. Honestly, this is way beyond differences of political opinion. This is truly delusional, insanity. They answer the unknowable with hubris and fantasies.
That’s my reason too.
Global warming.
Not KFC.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.