HONG KONG: Researchers have discovered exactly how large ocean mammals like the fin whale can gape their mouths so wide when feeding and not cause permanent damage to themselves.
If you tried to open your own mouth the same way a fin whale does, you’d likely cause neurological damage to your tongue and mouth. However, when the 88 foot long behemoth does it, it’s no problem at all – and scientists have tried to figure out what it is about the fin whale’s biology that lets it distend its mouth and tongue to such great lengths without causing damage to itself.
In fact, when fin whales prepare to feed the massive animal opens its mouth wide enough to hold a volume of water that’s larger than its own body. Called lunge feeding, the process involves the 70-ton creature surging forward in the water with its mouth open as it gulps up massive quantities of plankton and other small creatures – and the force of the water is so great that it flips the whale’s tongue upside down and expands the lower oral cavity of the fin whale into a gargantuan pouch between its skin and its body wall. Once the whale’s mouth is closed it expels the seawater out through its baleen, keeping the food behind.
It turns out that fin whales – much like their evolutionary cousins blue whales, which are even larger – don’t have to worry about running the risk of damaging their nerves. According to researchers, the nerves of these whales are elastic enough to stretch to twice their length and then return to their normal size all without suffering damage.
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