Special Feeding Mechanisms in Rorqual Whales

Here's something to think of if you go whale watching. We hear many confident assertions about how critters that are long dead lived, bred, ate, and so on. And yet, scientists do not really have a good understanding of many things living in the here and now, especially rorqual whales. But to be fair, it's not easy to follow something that can take a deep dive for 20 minutes and swim mighty fast when it wants to.

Fin whale mother and calf / Photo Credit: Christin Khan, NOAA/NEFSC

When these bad boys feed, they open their mouths and lunge deep in the ocean, taking in huge amounts of water so they can filter out the food, mainly krill. So much water, so fast, you'd think they'd rip themselves apart. Scientists have recently discovered a special nerve that works with the rest of it's chowing-down machinery; everything has to be working at the same time, or nothing works, nothing makes sense. Evolution was not involved, it's the hand of the Creator at work.

A few years ago, scientists discovered a unique sensory organ in the jaw of a rorqual whale—the world's largest creature. Rorqual whales, which include the blue whale and fin whale, feed by ballooning out folds of tissue that bag gobs of krill from fertile ocean waters. Some of those researchers recently described the unique bungee-cord-like nerve construction that illustrates clever and intentional design.

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