Chapter 873 Whales

"Sperm... sperm whale? Dentures?"

"That's what humans call it." Killer whale Takata explained, and it was unclear whether he was talking about "sperm whale" or "dentures."

Whales are divided into toothed whales and baleen whales. As the name suggests, toothed whales are whales with traditional conical teeth. Most of these whales are traditional predators that feed on larger creatures.

Baleen whales are different. Baleen whales' teeth have completely degenerated. Instead, they are replaced by fine baleen in their mouths. Unlike teeth made of calcium phosphate, the main component of baleen is keratin - from this perspective, the baleen of baleen whales is closer to "hair".

Baleen whales swallow seawater in large gulps, then lift their tongues to squeeze the seawater out of their mouths. The seawater passes through the whale, and the baleen of baleen whales intercepts a large amount of plankton in the seawater. From water fleas that are invisible to the naked eye to medium and large fish that are nearly a meter long, baleen whales can basically eat everything.

Sperm whales are large toothed whales, and their main food is large mollusks, such as giant squids and giant squids. They also have super diving ability. Deep-sea squids are not very athletic and have basically no ability to resist sperm whales. The huge head of the sperm whale, which occupies one-third of the body, is actually occupied by a considerable part of fat. This huge cavity is also the organ for them to release powerful ultrasonic waves.

But in contrast, the sperm whale's jaw is very, very small.

Compared with his huge forehead, it is pitifully small.

"Ah, that's right, so Hopkins's jaw is also artificial." The killer whale sighed: "If the size of the mouth is not artificially expanded, they can't eat enough."

Typical baleen whales, such as blue whales, have a huge mouth. Even this is not enough. There are many folds between the blue whale's jaw and abdomen. This allows this part of the limbs to expand very wide. The blue whale can swallow a lot of seawater in one gulp, and then slowly filter out the tiny creatures inside.

But the small mouth of the sperm whale that sucks squids can't do this at all.

Even if an artificial lower jaw is installed, it won't work.

The solution to this problem is prosthetic transformation.

Humans use a technology similar to "fistula" to open several holes at the end of the mouth of sperm whales such as Hopkins. These holes bypass important blood vessels and body cavities, and there are also a large number of filters similar to whale baleen on the inside of the mouth.

As a filter-feeding creature, cartilaginous fish such as whale sharks do not need to use whale baleen to filter seawater. The gill rakes possessed by sharks can be slightly modified to undertake similar tasks. Whale sharks only need to swallow water in large gulps to do something similar to baleen whales.

And some predatory sharks even use "gulping water in large gulps" as a means of acceleration.

These modified sperm whales can also master similar methods after some training.

These standardized giant toothed whales have completely changed their eating habits under the effect of prosthetics and transformation, and even swim faster and more powerfully than their ancestors.

Hearing this, Xiangshan was amazed at the humans behind these whales.

These whales gained wisdom after the No. 1 infection incident. Due to limited manpower, people who tried to preserve the fire for the biosphere would give priority to rescuing animals that were "more likely to be saved."

At that time, the most mature benchmark transformation process was the benchmark transformation surgery of Homo sapiens. In other words, the closer the animal is to humans, the easier it is to save.

The success rate of saving whales is much higher than that of saving sharks.

These whales gained their current wisdom after the extinction of sharks. Even if the first generation of whales still remember the stories of their ancestors, it is difficult for them to give a detailed description of animals such as whale sharks from a scientific perspective, let alone design a whale-based physical transformation based on this.

The experiences and stories passed down from generation to generation by human ancestors were unconsciously processed into myths by humans themselves in the era without words. The heroic deeds of a hero who is famous and has many achievements in mythology may come from more and older mythological heroes. And the original bodies of those heroes are more forgotten ancestors.

"Perhaps the legendary feat of Hercules hunting and skinning the Nemean Lion came from the gossip of a chieftain who had hunted a large lion and boasted to his descendants about his proud achievements in his life." A friend once described Xiangshan like this.

Humans are like this, let alone whales before they gain wisdom.

While Xiangshan was thinking, a killer whale whimpered. He seemed to be too hungry to bear it. Then, the sperm whale at the foot of Xiangshan also cried twice.

The killer whale named Rinaldo turned and went under the sperm whale.

Xiangshan asked curiously: "What is this for?"

"Eat milk." Klediqi explained: "The milk of large whales is the only stable source of food we can obtain. Although electrical energy replaces most of the energy generated by breathing, the body still needs nutrients. There are not many large fish in the sea now for dolphins to hunt..."

The protein and fat of the whale group all depend on the milk of these large whales.

These large whales have also been genetically modified to secrete milk regardless of whether they are raising their calves. Whale milk is also very different from that of land animals. Whale milk has a very high fat content and will not dissolve in seawater for a while. Moreover, whales can spray milk by their own power, rather than requiring their calves to actively absorb it like land mammals.

These large whales rely on their physical advantages to travel long distances and filter plankton in different seas. In this era of mass extinction, the density of marine life is extremely low. If they only feed in one place, it is easy to eat local animals to extinction, so large whales have no choice but to do so.

Sometimes, they also need to bring growing killer whales that have the largest appetite and need food the most.

Adult killer whales will take the initiative to undergo complete cyborg transformation to completely get rid of hunger. However, these juvenile killer whales are similar to humans. If they undergo complete cyborg transformation too early, it will lead to a fierce conflict between instinct and cyborg, and huge psychological problems will arise.

Moreover, adult killer whales are too fierce, but for young killer whales, the baleen sperm whale can calm them down with their physical advantages alone. Even if they lose their minds, it is not terrible.

Xiangshan sighed: "How did you think of living together?"

"We are the only ones who survived." Klediqi said: "There are only a few large whales, and they belong to different populations. They rely on cloning technology to pass on from generation to generation. They are also afraid of loneliness. And we can't live without them. We have to live together."

I watched a documentary about whales yesterday and forgot the time. Sorry everyone.