According to reports, the world's largest bioplasticized specimen has been produced in China and has officially met with the public. As the world's first sperm whale to be plasticized, how was it made into a specimen? Today, let's take a look!
A sperm whale that ran aground to death 4 years ago
Four years ago, on the coast of Rudong County in Jiangsu Province, two sperm whales were found stranded and died. This is not the first time that sperm whales have run aground in Jiangsu, in 2012, there were four sperm whales stranded in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, when experts tried their best to rescue them, but still did not save their lives.
Sperm whales are the largest toothed whales in the world, with a maximum body length of 18 meters and a weight of a staggering 50 tons. They are characterized by a very large head, basically about 33% of the body area is a large head. In addition, although they may seem very bulky, in fact, they are the diving masters of the ocean.
We all know that in the ocean, there are also mammals, they are not like fish can survive completely in the sea for a long time, every once in a while, they need to surface to absorb oxygen. Among marine mammals, sperm whales are the animals that can dive underwater for the longest time.
Speaking of which, the living environment of sperm whales is not optimistic, because they have a valuable Chinese medicinal material in their bodies - ambergris, so many people will desperately take risks to hunt sperm whales under the trend of interests. At the same time, human activities also pose a great harm to the habitat of sperm whales, so there are more and more cases of sperm whales stranded around the world.
As for why there are sperm whale strandings, scientists are also studying, but they have not given a specific answer, some scientists believe that perhaps because sperm whales are group life, and there are leading sperm whales, so if the leading sperm whales have an accident, other sperm whales will still move with it, so there will be a collective stranding phenomenon.
What happens to the carcasses of sperm whales after they have been stranded?
As we mentioned above, in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, there was a sperm whale stranding incident, when all 4 sperm whales died, and the treatment result given by the local authorities was either made into specimens or buried deeply. However, none of their specimens were successful at the time, so after the re-stranding of sperm whales 4 years ago, one of them was left behind by scientists to use new technology to make it into a specimen.
Some friends may say that making animal carcasses into specimens is not something that existed as early as ancient times, so why is it so difficult to make sperm whale carcasses? The reason is simple, because the sperm whale is so big, it weighs as much as 10 adult elephants, and before making the specimen, there is still a problem to be solved - whale bursting.
What is a Whale Burst?
In 2004, in Tainan City, Taiwan Province, China, there was an incident of sperm whale carcasses bursting in itself, which aroused widespread media attention. There are many similar situations, such as in 2013, when a sperm whale washed up on the beach exploded while being dissected.
Of course, in addition to sperm whales, other whales will also explode, this is because whales are generally very large, they also eat a lot of food before they die, if the food in their bodies is not digested and dies, then these foods will produce a large amount of methane, hydrosulfides and other gases in the body, and accompanied by the decay of body organs, gases will be more and more inside the whale, once it is improperly touched by the outside world, there will be an explosion.
Therefore, when making sperm whale specimens, preventing whale explosions and exhausting sperm whales has become the first test, otherwise once a whale explosion occurs, then the production of specimens will end here and can no longer be carried out. Fortunately, the team involved in the production of the sperm whale specimen was a very experienced team, and it took a whole day to completely discharge the gas from the sperm whale's body.
What is Bioplastic technology?
This is the most advanced specimen making technology in the world, after the internal organs of the corpse are removed, it is dehydrated, degreased and a series of treatments, and then after vacuum negative pressure infiltration, the final curing of the later stage is completed, and the specimen is perfectly produced.
Therefore, this sperm whale that died 4 years ago, under this high-tech specimen making technology, was re-awakened and reborn, it can be preserved in the form of specimens for thousands of years, which is equivalent to another continuation of its life form, after all, the sperm whale has long become a rare wild animal, no one can guarantee that it will not become extinct in the future, and this specimen can prove that they once existed.
Informational messages
"Science and Technology Daily" July 8 article "Nearly 15 meters long sperm whale 'dead and resurrected', the world's largest bioplasticized specimen was born"