By: Sundial
All throughout history people have been fascinated by whales. Creating stories such as Moby Dick and using whales as symbolism for resilience and strength. But, as climate change, by-catch, and loss of ocean habitat are affecting whales it is paramount we learn more about them before it is too late. This book is a story of the past, present, and future of whales told by a paleontologist studying whale bones. First, he examines whales' past from before they even stepped foot in the ocean. Then, he looks at whales of today and what we can learn from modern whales coupled with the information gathered from the past. Additionally, this is not just a history of whales but a recognition of the work put into finding whale bones and all the people who have helped gather information on whales in a plethora of ways. Specifically, paleontology of whale bones can give us a lot of information on whales past, present, and futures but it has its limitations. Time is an enemy slowly taking knowledge from us through the degradation of bones, and through the extinction of current species alive today, who may soon be lost.
First, I loved the way this book structured its facts. It starts with the past. There has been a lot of speculation of whales' pasts and what animals they were most closely related with and when they came into the ocean and became the whales we know today. Whales started out as land animals, more closely related to cows and hippos than any other animals in the ocean, but at some point their ancestors moved to the ocean and slowly adapted into something that formed the whales we know today. Yet, current whales are still quite different from past whales. Humans today are currently living in a world with the biggest animals that have ever existed that we know of. Whales today are much larger than whales of the past and blue whales weigh more than any animal to have ever existed on earth that humans know of.
To understand these mechanics of evolution and size, paleontologists must look both at past whale bones and the physics associated with living as such a large animal in the ocean. First, bones are something science must regularly consult to understand the evolution of an animal, but time can erode the information associated with these bones and what information they can give us. Due to the degradation of soft tissue over time there is often a loss of valuable information of the anatomy and physiology of these animals. Therefore lots of evidence must be collected to make accurate inferences in the puzzle that is the history of whales. One of the most important bones that can be collected from a whale is its skull. It is more easily recognizable and can give a good look into the feeding of an animal if the teeth are attached or the size of the animal using skull proportions. Due to the extreme evolution of whales some whale bones can look drastically different to what they do now but using features unique to whales like ear bones scientists can conclude that many whales of the past are considerably smaller than the whales of today. Secondly, we must look at the physics of whales. Some, like the blue whale, are so extremely large that if they were to live on land their own weight would crush their internal organs. While this is not a problem in the water where they are basically weightless, drag can become a problem for large whales as they must eat enough to gain the energy needed to move through water. Even a single lunge for food takes immense energy to defy the water and inflate their mouth to envelop the amount of prey needed to feed them.
Today studying whales is more important than ever and this book does a stunning job of showing this. It explains how data for whales is collected through both the study of bones and physical necropsy. Much of our knowledge of whale anatomy comes from whaling and even continues to come from small whaling ventures as it is one of the few ways to study freshly dead whales before soft tissue begins to break apart. Scientists are now beginning to realize how our baseline for whale populations and the ocean ecosystem is skewed even before climate change due to whaling during the 19th century dramatically changed our ocean and its food webs possibly more than we can ever imagine. These facts and so much more are included in this book and provide a beautiful reflection on whales today and in the past. This book taught me so much about who is studying whales and how people are studying whales through a multitude of different methods and mediums. This book also highlights the many things we do not know about whales and how important these things are to find out and learn about before it is too late.
I would rate this book 4.5 stars because at times it was hard to follow as it delved into the past and specific time periods of earth's history. It was rarely boring and you were learning something new at every turn of the page. I have learned so much from this book not just about whales but about paleontology and other types of science looking at evolution and the history of earth. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in marine biology or just biology and earth science in general and definitely think it was worth the read.
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