Before the scientific and technological revolution, human beings could only move on the sea, or rely on some simple tools to dive into the shallow sea tens of meters deep, and they could not reach the vast deep sea. Even at present, the most advanced submersibles can reach the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, but they can only stay for a short time, and more than 90% of the deep sea area is still unexplored.
Many times, scientists can only understand the ocean through some marine animals with strong deep diving ability, and human flesh and blood are difficult to resist the harsh environment of the deep sea, but organisms that have lived and evolved in the ocean for tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of years can adapt to marine life, and some of them have deep diving superpowers, such as marine mammals that are close to us.
Hook shrimp from the Mariana Trench
Marine mammals are the last group of organisms to return to the sea, they retain the way of living with lung breathing, compared with other animals, they survive in the ocean more difficult, deep diving is more difficult, to overcome the pressure, oxygen, body temperature of the three major problems, while fish, mollusks and arthropods mainly overcome the pressure problem. So their deep diving ability is unmatched by mammals.
<h1>Overview of biological deep dives</h1>
For example, a fish called Fangtooth can live at a depth of 4877 meters, several lionfish can be seen at a depth of 8000 meters in the Atacama Trench, and a lionfish also lives at a depth of 8178 meters in the Mariana Trench, and scientists estimate that the limit depth of fish survival is 8200 meters. An arthropod hook shrimp was found at a depth of 10,917 meters, and the famous king squid can dive to a depth of 3,048 meters, and its old rival is the former mammal diving champion , the sperm whale.
The scratches on the sperm whale's head are suspected to have been committed by the king squid
Sperm whale is the largest tooth whale, can grow up to 20 meters long 50 tons weight, because of its resembrand submarine appearance and become the focus of scientists' research, in the 1970s there were scientific reports that the maximum diving depth of sperm whales is 2250 meters, when humans just began to explore the deep sea, the sperm whale diving ability was greatly admired. The reputation of the sperm whale as the king of mammal diving is getting louder and deeper, but as the study of marine life gradually deepens, scientists have found that the sperm whale's diving ability is not the strongest among mammals, and its record has since been broken twice, and the record-breakers are "small" in front of it.
<h1>Two new records</h1>
The first record-breaking was the southern elephant seal, the king of pinnipeds, which weighed 3.6 tons at 6 meters long and weighed less than one-tenth of the sperm whale. In 2005, biologist Kotas found that a southern elephant seal dived to a depth of 2388 meters, setting a new mammalian diving record, and other scientists have repeatedly found that southern elephant seals dived into depths of 1700-2000 meters. But the southern elephant seal's fame was too small in front of the sperm whale, and its "diving king" crown had not been worn for long, and it was snatched away by another more obscure guy.
A list of cetacean dive records produced by the BBC
The new "King of Mammal Diving" is less famous than the southern elephant seal, and it is the Koch's beaked whale that many people have never heard of. In 2012, a research team installed trackers on a group of Kehl's beaked whales, and as a result, one male beaked whale dived to a depth of 2295 meters, and another female beaked whale was even more powerful, diving to a depth of 2992 meters, breaking the diving record of the southern elephant seal in one fell swoop! Ke's beaked whale is also a member of the order Cetacean, body length of 7 meters and weight of 3 tons, belongs to the medium and large tooth whale, it is reasonable to say, the diving depth of almost 3000 meters should make it famous, why is the Ke's beaked whale still unknown? I think there are several main reasons.
<h1>The reason for the obscurity of the Koch's beaked whale</h1>
1. There are many members of the beaked whale family, which is difficult to identify
Roughly members of the beaked cetaceae
Beaked whale family is a branch of the cetacean family, second only to the dolphin family, including about 22 species of beaked whales, and almost every year in the division of naming, because the members are too many, and the appearance is very similar, difficult to identify, with a very similar snout to the dolphin, but larger, there is no feature, most of them are named after the discoverer, basically X-beaked whales. In addition to researchers and veteran animal fans, others are estimated to be dizzy when they look at the name, let alone remember it.
2, Ke's beaked whale is haunted
Ke's beaked whales are found very few times, not because they are small in number, but they are more active in the deep sea, if there is no record of collective stranding, it is estimated that they will be classified as mysterious species, they are not as active as dolphins, nor are they as large as sperm whales, nor are they regulars in documentaries or popular science books, so their fame is naturally very low, and they are still considered to be the most mysterious cetaceans to this day.
3, sperm whale fame has always been high
In addition to the reasons for the Kesper's beaked whale itself, the huge fame of the sperm whale also limits its fame as the "king of diving" in some ways. The sperm whale has a very large head with a very personality, is the best recognizable cetacean, there are precious ambergris, but also the largest toothed whale and the largest predator, and its deep-sea war with the mysterious creature king squid also makes animal fans relish, and all kinds of titles and deeds add up, it is difficult to think of famous. Although its deep diving record was broken twice, it is still considered by most people to be a mammalian diving champion.
It can be seen that it is more important to mix a face than to bury your head in hard work, and fame is sometimes far more useful than strength.
By the way, add to the diving records of other marine mammals.
Image from the web
Among them, killer whales also set their own record of 260 meters, just last year, a killer whale set a deep diving record of 1087 meters, which can be ranked third among cetaceans, and it is not known why killer whales consume so much energy for deep diving. Although the sperm whale is not the deepest diving mammal, it still has the longest holding time of mammals, with 138 minutes that is difficult for other animals to match. Because the lungs of the whales are constricted when diving, they can only rely on myoglobin and hemoglobin to store oxygen, and the huge body and head of the sperm whale can store more oxygen, thus saving this championship.
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