Blue and Humpback Whales Have Really Big Mouths
Photo credit: BBC News
Blue whales and humpback whales are the biggest whales in the ocean, and they have pretty big mouths.
Scientists have long wondered how they’re able to expand their jaws so wide, and the secret may lie in their nerves.
Stretchy nerves. That’s what allows Rorquals (blue and humpback whales) to gulp large volumes of water and food.
Most vertebrates have nerves that are fragile and inelastic, so this find in whales is a first!
Researchers worked near Iceland to study the anatomical adaptations that allow “lunge feeding.”
“It’s probably one of the only places in the world where you can do this sort of work, because these animals are so huge that even getting in through the skin is something you can’t do without having heavy machinery around,” said Professor Wayne Vogl, an anatomist at the University of British Columbia and the study’s first author.
“When you are working with a 20m fin whale, it’s important to have the right equipment. If a heart falls on you, it could kill you.”
The professor likened the nerves in the jaws to bungee cords.
“We were looking at the muscle in the floor of the mouth and there were these long white cords,” Professor Vogl told the BBC. “Bob picked one up – about 3ft of it – grabbed each end and stretched it. He looked at me and said, ‘Hey, look at this!’
“We thought it was a blood vessel.”
Lunge feeding may be the catalyst that helped these whales become so large, evolutionary biologists say.
