Hello everyone! I'm Xiao Wu, welcome back to brain hole utopia.
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The blue planet on which we live is covered in 72% of the ocean. At present, the scientific community generally believes that since the Earth has life activity, all species have relied on water sources for fission and evolution, and it took hundreds of millions of years to produce millions of species. The ocean has always been a mystery-like existence. Oceanographers believe that so far, humans have only explored 5% of the ocean. You may have heard a lot about the creatures you're going to share with you today, but you don't necessarily really know them. Once lived on land 50 million years ago, they are now the hegemons of the sea. What's more, they may be inextricably linked to the true origin of humans, and they are whales.
• Pakistani whale Pakicetus
In 1978, Philip D. Gingerich, a paleontologist at the University of Michigan, arrived in Pakistan's Suleiman, Pakistan with a team of archaeologists. There they found fossil skulls of an ancient creature about 50 million years old. As an expert on terrestrial mammals and paleontology, Professor Ginger ridge held this fossil for half a day and wondered which animal it belonged to.
Soon after, archaeologists dug up fossils of other parts of the mysterious animal's body nearby. They took the fossils back to the lab and pieced them together, and a guy who wasn't too big and looked a bit like a wolf appeared in front of everyone's eyes.
It was then that Professor King Grych discovered that the ancient creature had a protruding bone in its ear. This feature of ear bone protrusions on Earth today is only possessed by one mammal, and that is the whale in the ocean. Professor Gingridge was shocked. Could it be that this guy who looks like a wild wolf is the ancestor of whales? That is, the evolutionary history of whales is from land to sea? For the convenience of research, and the fact that the fossils were found in Pakistan, Professor King Grych named this paleontology the Pakistani whale.
● Chocobo Whale Amblocetus natans
Sixteen years later, in 1994, one of Professor King Grych's students, Hans M. Hans Thewissen, another fossil of an unknown paleontology was found in a 49-million-year-old geological formation in Pakistan's Suliman Mountains. The animal has a peculiar shape, with the legs of a land-dwelling mammal, but the feet of a duck-like wading creature. In this fossil, they also found bulging in the middle ear, meaning they were also the ancestors of whales. Hans named this paleontology "Chocobo Whale".
Chocobo whale fossils are 1 million years later than Pakistani whales, and the bones are slightly different. Compared with Pakistani whales, chocobo whales have broad and flat tail bones, shortened and widened hind leg bones, and tilted backwards and upwards, and the streamlined shape of the entire body is stronger, indicating that they have become more adapted to underwater life. But through analysis of the teeth, Hans found that chocobo whales still eat fresh water, that is, they can walk on land and swim easily in the water.
Professor Kingridge was so excited by the discovery of the chocobo whale that he, with his student Hans and several other archaeologists, once again marched to pakistan's Suriman Mountains in the same year.
● Rodhocetus
This time, King grych and his party found another fossil of a paleontology in a rock formation 46 million years ago. They are chocobo whales that have evolved, with a body length of 3 meters, a pronouncedly longer skull, a contraction and shortening of the cervical vertebrae, a continued shorter and wider hind leg and tilted upwards, and the soles of the feet showed the characteristics of webbing. There is no doubt that this series of changes is to better adapt to life in the ocean. Professor Ginglich named it "Rodeo Whale". This time, after analyzing the tooth structure and composition of the fossils, they concluded that the "Rhodes whale" ate seawater and could already live in the ocean for a long time.
The story doesn't end there yet.
● Dragon King Whale Basilosaurus
In fact, before the discovery of the Rodhou whale fossil, in 1983, Professor King Grych discovered another huge fossil of an ancient whale on a trip to Egypt, a paleontology known as the "Dragon King Whale". The Fossil Dragon Whale was found in a desert 150 kilometers southwest of Egypt, which was once the seabed of the Tethys Ocean 39 million years ago. The fossil skeleton of this giant creature is about 18 meters long and can even compete with the prehistoric megalodon shark. Such a muscular body shape should be called the overlord of the ocean at that time. But Professor King Gingridge speculates that the Dragon King Whale is more docile and habitually lives in shallow seas, waiting for an opportunity to hunt prey.
Living in the same period as the Dragon King Whale was another class of ancient whales, known as the Speartooth Whale (Dorudon). Smaller in size, the obvious feature is that the hind limbs have evolved into fins, and the whole body is closer to the current whale.
In this way, a history of whale evolution is unfolding before us. About 50 million years ago, Pakistan is still a vast ocean. At that time, the Pakistani whale was originally a carefree, wolf-like creature on land, living on fresh water. However, as the continent drifts and temperatures rise, the area of freshwater gradually decreases. Pakistani whales had to risk extinction and hovered over the edge of the bay to feed. After 1 million years, the Pakistani whales on land have completely disappeared due to food shortages, and the Pakistani whales in the sea have evolved duck-like fins and become "chocobo whales" in order to adapt to the environment. 3 million years later, the chocobo whale became the Rhodes whale, forming a perfect streamlined body. Another 10 million years later, giant Dragon King Whales and Speartooth Whales appeared in the oceans. But at this time, the earth's environment has changed, the sea level has dropped with the decrease in temperature, and the giant dragon king whale has gradually pushed out of the stage of history due to its slender body shape that cannot adapt to the pressure of the deep sea. The remaining ancient whales evolved into a large family of more than 80 species of whales we see today.
We also mentioned at the beginning that the scientific community generally believes that life originated in the ocean. 300 million years ago, the first vertebrates climbed from the ocean onto land. 100 million years ago, the first mammal appeared on Earth. But 50 million years ago, mammalian ancient whales returned from land to the ocean. Such a riotous operation that violates the laws of nature is simply breathtaking.
But returning to the ocean does not mean that whales become real fish, they are still mammals living in the ocean and need to breathe with their lungs. So it's inappropriate to call them "whales" exactly. Over the course of 50 million years of evolution, their "nose" moved from the face to the top of the head, and today we call it "blowhole."
When the cetacean surfaces, the stomata open. When diving into the ocean floor, the stomata are covered by myocutaneous valves. That is to say, whales, like us humans, need to breathe to obtain oxygen, and there is never a way to kill ourselves by holding our breath. But the peculiarity of cetaceans is that they take a breath of fresh air, which is enough for them to dive down to the bottom of the sea for hundreds or even kilometers, and when they resurface to breathe, it is already 2 hours later. So whales can definitely be called real breath-holding masters. But it also begs the question, what should they do while they sleep? Can't you always sleep until you get up halfway and then change your breath?
● Deep Sea Stonehenge
In 2008, a diver happened to capture a bizarre image off the coast of Chile. Several sperm whales floated vertically in the sea, motionless. At first glance, I thought it was underwater Stonehenge, or a floating underwater hanging coffin. In fact, this is the unique soul-destroying sleeping position of sperm whales. Scientists call this way of sleeping "logging" because from a distance it looks like giant driftwood.
Sperm whales only spend about 7% of their time a day sleeping, sleeping for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. But for those 10 to 15 minutes, the sperm whale is in a state of complete sleep. Compared with the state of human beings sleeping for a night, sperm whales are at best a nap, naturally there is no problem of suffocation, and there is no need to breathe.
As for why sperm whales sleep in such a soul-destroying position, scientists have yet to find a definitive answer. Some scholars speculate that it is because the head is facing upwards, allowing the sperm whale to feel the light. When oxygen is insufficient, it can quickly surface to breathe. Other scholars say that sperm whales have whale brain oil stored on their heads, which is commonly known as "cetacean.".
The wax on the head of each sperm whale can be as high as 1000 liters or more. They can control the melting or coagulation of whale wax by accelerating their own blood circulation or inhaling cold seawater, so as to achieve the effect of regulating their own density, so as to achieve floating or diving. When the sperm whale sleeps, the wax automatically adjusts to a strange floating state.
But it's worth mentioning that not all cetaceans are masters of breath holding, such as some dolphins, which need to breathe in less than 20 minutes. Yes, you heard that right, dolphins also belong to the whale order. Bottlenose dolphins sleep an average of 33% of their total daily sleep, which is basically equivalent to the length of human sleep. So will they be choked to death after entering a deep sleep? In order to ensure that they can also come out in time to ventilate while sleeping, they have developed a special skill, that is, the two brain hemispheres work separately. Let one side of the brain go into a deep sleep state and the other side of the brain stay awake. Alternating sleep in the left and right hemispheres of the brain. In this way, they not only regulate spontaneous breathing, but also ensure that potential predators are detected while sleeping. One might ask, can you sleep well? In fact, every sleep of the dolphin is a deep sleep that is not fast-eye movement, and the whole body can be completely relaxed. When humans sleep, they will gradually move from reticulate shallow sleep to non-LEM deep sleep. Scientists have found that as long as people can guarantee 1-2 small deep sleeps per day, they can be energetic the next day. In this way, dolphins sleep longer than humans.
More than 80 species of cetaceans, which evolved from the original Pakistani whales, now dominate the oceans.
The blue whale became the largest animal on Earth. The largest blue whale ever spotted is 30 meters long and weighs 200 tons. A blue whale has a heart bigger than a car and a tongue heavier than an African elephant. However, blue whales have a more docile personality and generally feed on small fish and shrimp such as krill.
Gray whales, world swimming champions, can swim more than 20,000 kilometers around the earth every year.
Bowhead whales are the longest-lived whales, surviving more than 200 years.
The most eye-catching is the killer whale, even the shark dares to be afraid, in the ocean, at the very top of the food chain. It can be said that there are basically no natural enemies, of course, except for humans
The giant creatures of these oceans are enough to be awe-inspiring just by looking at their size, but surprisingly, they are very friendly to humans.
One day in 2018, marine biologist Nan. In the Cook Islands, South Pacific, Hauser observed the habits of a humpback whale in the water from a distance. Although he has more than a decade of diving experience, Hauser is still very cautious and definitely does not dare to get too close. After all, compared to such a behemoth, human beings are as small as ants. But today's humpback whale is a little different. It swam toward Hauser with its tail flapped and drew closer and closer, eventually pushing Hauser with its head. Hauser was nervous and excited. But what she didn't realize was that not far away, a tiger shark was staring at the tiger. Humpback whales are protecting Hauser. As the tiger shark got closer, the humpback whale simply pushed Hauser out of the water with its back, and finally Hauser returned safely to her boat.
In the wild, cetacean injuries are very rare. They will not show an aggressive side unless they are hunted down by non-humans or abused in a commercial performance. And dolphins belonging to the toothed cetaceans have long been considered man's best friend and one of the most intelligent animals in the world.
But these giant beasts that even the great white shark did not spare, why did they favor humans alone? Some scholars say that is because there are already enough delicacies in nature for whales to enjoy, and they are not rare to eat people. Others say that some cetaceans swallow their prey when they prey, and their intestines are so narrow that even if they eat humans, they have to spit it out obediently. What's even more outrageous is that in recent years some scientists have proposed the hypothesis that humans may have originated in the ocean, and that our ancestors established friendly relations with the ancestors of cetaceans in ancient times, and this trust is as if it was engraved in the bones and continues to this day. At first glance, this statement sounds very absurd, but if you examine it carefully, there is still a lot of evidence.
Primates, for example, have thick body hair, but humans have relatively smooth skin, which is similar to aquatic mammals and cetaceans.
Humans are the only primates who weep and weep. The salt discharged by tear fluid can also control the water and salt balance in the body. The same is true of marine mammals, which, after ingesting salty water, perform a series of filters in the kidneys and then excrete the salts that are useless to the body.
Most mammals have a chance of having children until they die, although their fertility declines as they age. Only killer whales, pilot whales and humans in the world have menopause. A woman's menopause is also one of nature's greatest mysteries.
There is also a taste of seafood that humans love, but other primates reject it.
Human brain development requires a substance called DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), which is abundant in marine life, which is what we call deep-sea fish oil. Today, DHA is widely added to modern baby formulas.
One of the most frightening things about is that studies have shown that it is easier for pregnant women to give birth in water. And newborns have good acupressive adaptation, which is called the diving reflex .
In the water, the baby can hold his breath on his own, swim on all fours, and make swimming movements. But this ability magically and naturally disappears when your baby is 6 months old.
Over the years, we have all been almost brainwashed by Darwin's theory of evolution. Darwin believed that the ancestor of humans was Australopithecus, who lived between 4.2 million and 1 million years ago. Australopithecus further ahead there is the paleo-ape, which lived 8 million years ago.
But the problem is that in this long evolutionary chain, there is a 2.8 million-year gap between the ancient ape and the australopithecus, and no transitional biological fossils have been found in this gap.
In the 1960s, the British anthropologist Alist Hardy proposed a hypothesis that during the blank period of fossils, humans did not live on land, but in the ocean, that is, there was an aquatic sea ape stage.
In 1877, the American explorer Edward M. Moss found Omori Shell Mound in Japan. It was formed by the accumulation of shellfish that people preyed on in prehistoric times. Omori Shell Tomb has also become the birthplace of Japanese archaeology. In fact, these shell mounds are found all over the coastal areas of the world. Many of the shells in these mounds are deep-sea shellfish. In an era without diving equipment, it was impossible to salvage these shellfish without superb breath-holding diving techniques.
The sea ape hypothesis seems to tell the story of how millions of years ago, the Earth underwent a global warming and the sea level rose sharply. Ancient apes, like the original Pakistani whales, returned to the sea from land and became sea apes. It was also at that time that there was an intersection with cetaceans already living in the ocean, and this intersection was burned into the genes.
Then millions of years passed, and the Earth's environment changed again, and the sea faded. The sea apes returned from the ocean to land. So will some of them not want to return to land, but choose to continue to live in the sea? If this is the case, will there be another higher civilization in today's deep sea?
The holes in our brains are getting bigger and bigger, and we return to reality.
Cetaceans have embarked on a breathtaking evolutionary path into the sea while they are alive, and when they die, they are the most romantic rebirths in the world.
Whales are said to predict their own death. When it has a premonition that life is coming, it will leave alone, quietly find a quiet sea, and meet the most tragic moment alone. After death, its huge body will slowly sink into the pitch-black seabed, forming a unique ecosystem. This process is known as "whale fall". In the depths of the barren ocean, whales feed numerous creatures. Tens of thousands of decomposer-dominated life forms will survive on whale drops. This behemoth, after death, has also become the warmest "oasis" in the lonely ocean. After a hundred years, the last organic matter of the whale fall will be depleted, and the remaining skeleton will be turned into a reef and become a colony for living creatures.
The cycle of life begins again, and the cycle begins and never stops. That's why there is the saying, "When a whale falls, all things are born." "The death of the whale is the last reward to nature. Born in the sea, returned to the sea. A 40-tonne whale settles into the seabed, about the same area of organic matter that naturally settles for at least 2,000 years. What other way of dying in the world would be so generous? The whale falls, not the end of life, but the beginning of a noise.
Of course, the whale fall is the most dreamy scene when the whale dies naturally. If it is stranded or some unnatural death, there may be one of the most terrifying scenes in nature, a whale explosion.
After stranding, dead whales will quickly decay their internal tissues and organs, and the bacteria will spread rapidly, producing a large amount of gases such as methane, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide in the body. Finally, the thick skin bag broke through, a loud noise, the corpse-like intestines, blood clots flew everywhere, the power was very amazing.
So far, when it comes to why whales run aground, the scientific community has still not been able to find a definitive answer. But there's a generally accepted possibility that emissions of man-made materials and chemicals lead to massive seawater pollution, leaving marine mammals stunted and damaged the whales' nervous systems. Artificial sonar can also interfere with the whale's echolocation system and natural brainwave activity, causing the whales to disorient, forcing them to the beach and eventually running aground.
Marine litter, offshore oil spills, seawater pollution, these cetaceans have already suffered the consequences one step ahead of humans.
Another, more intractable problem caused by industrial activity today – global warming, rising sea levels – is threatening the environment in which we live. One day, when the sea really floods the continent, this time, can humans open up a way to survive in the sea like ancient cetaceans?