Gallery: The Amazing World of Whales Revealed in Giants of the Deep
01sperm-whale
Few animals capture our imaginations the way whales do. As fellow mammals, there's something immediately recognizable about them -- and yet, specialized as they are for deep ocean life, they're magically foreign, too, like visitors from another world. From now until January 2014, people can touch that world at the American Museum of Natural History's *Whales: Giants of the Deep* exhibition. It features a 58-foot-long sperm whale skeleton, a life-sized blue whale heart, and a bounty of fossils and illustrations describing the extraordinary evolutionary journey of whales, which started with 45 million years ago with terrestrial history's largest meat-eating mammal and led to the largest animals in history, period. For people who can't visit in person, exhibition curator John Flynn took Wired on a tour. __Above and below:__ Sperm Whale ----------- Hanging above *Giants of the Deep* is a 58-foot-long sperm whale skeleton. This is, incredibly, not an especially large specimen. The largest predators on Earth, sperm whales can weigh 90,000 pounds and reach nearly 70 feet in length. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/03/18_Sperm-whales_DF_130319_9987.jpg) *Images: 1) Brandon Cole ([high-resolution version](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/03/Sperm_whale_and_diver.jpg)) 2) AMNH*
Denis Finnin02a-very-big-heart
A Very Big Heart ---------------- The largest animal on Earth also has the largest heart. A blue whale heart like the one modeled here is nearly the size of a small car, weighs more than half a ton and is responsible for pumping some 10 tons of blood through the whale's vast circulatory system. "You can climb inside this one. Everyone says that's a fun thing for kids to do, but I climbed inside, too," said Flynn. "I'm a pretty big guy -- about the limit of what you get through a blue whale's blood vessel." *Image: AMNH/D. Finnin*
Michael Hall03strange-tooth
Strange Tooth ------------- Whales fall into two groups: those with teeth and those with mouths lined by baleen, or hair-like bristles that filter crustaceans and plankton from seawater. Baleen is actually an evolved type of tooth, hyper-specialized for a food source that didn't exist on land. Whales that fed on these tiny but plentiful organisms were able to attain vast sizes; blue whales, the largest creatures ever to exist on Earth, dinosaurs included, can [ingest 470,000 calories](http://www.livescience.com/10332-whales-swallow-million-calories-single-mouthful.html) in a single gulp. *Image: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008*
04from-land-to-water
From Land to Water ------------------ A series of fossils illustrates how whales evolved from land- to water-dwelling creatures. The process started about 60 million years ago on the shores of what is now Pakistan and resulted, 20 million years later, in *Basilosaurus*, a 60-foot-long whale with vestigial hind legs that trailed behind it. *Image: AMNH/D. Finnin*
05cousin-to-the-whales
Cousin to the Whales -------------------- On the tree of life, whales dwell on a limb also occupied by pigs, giraffes camels and other hoofed members of the order [Artiodactyla](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Even-toed_ungulate). Of the artiodactyls, hippopotamuses are the closest living relatives to whales. The last common ancestor of whales and hippos is [*Andrewsarchus*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrewsarchus), which lived roughly 45 million years ago in what's now Mongolia. It's known only from this 3-foot-long skull, discovered in the Gobi desert in 1923. *Image: AMNH/R. Mickens*
06a-very-big-carnivore
A Very Big Carnivore -------------------- Though *Andrewsarchus* is known only from one specimen, "based on skull anatomy, we can figure out where it fits on the mammalian family tree, and based on its position in relation to its closest relatives, we can reconstruct its anatomy and body size," said Flynn. The reconstructions show that *Andrewsarchus* was *big*, standing 6 feet tall at the shoulder and looking more than a little like an oversized, hyper-predatory giant boar. Its teeth were adapted to eating meet, said Flynn, making *Andrewsarchus* "probably the largest meat-eating land mammal that ever lived." [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/03/6b.-Andrewsarchus-skull-diagram_Mick-Ellison.jpg) *Images: Mick Ellison*
07the-first-whale
The First Whale --------------- Officially considered the first whale, wolf-sized *Pakicetus* lived about 45 million years ago in a river delta in what's now Pakistan. In many ways it was still accustomed to living on land -- after all, it still had feet -- but other traits tell of adaptation to submergence. The ears of *Pakicetus* seem attuned to detecting underwater vibration, and its eyes were positioned close together on the top of its head, as is common in animals that spend much of their time submerged, looking at prey above. Its bones were also unusually heavy, making them useful as ballast. People who study the evolution of whales think *Pakicetus* may have lived on land but hunted in water, ultimately sending its descendants on a completely aquatic journey. *Image: Carl Buell*
08becoming-whale
Becoming Whale -------------- The aquatic trajectory that started 45 million years ago in *Pakicetus* was realized a few million years later in the sleek, almost otter-like [*Kutchicetus*](http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2009/10/16/a-different-kind-of-whale/), adapted for a life spent almost entirely in water. *Image: Carl Buell*
09maori-whales
Maori Whales ------------ Many of the exhibits in *Whales: Giants of the Deep* come from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, which documents the traditional relationship to whales of the Maori, the country's indigenous inhabitants. Like many indigenous groups, the Maori hunted whales for thousands of years, developing an association with the creatures that extended far beyond their utilitarian use. Whales feature prominently in Maori mythology; the carving above, which once adorned the entrance to a meeting house, tells [the story of Paikea](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paikea), an ancestral figure carried to safety by a humpback whale after his half-brother tried to kill him. *Image: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa*
Denis Finnin10whaling
Whaling ------- Unavoidable in any exhibition on the history on whales is whaling, which emerged in industrial form in the 1600s and continued for several centuries of almost indiscriminate slaughter. Oil distilled from whale blubber was used to light maps, make soap and margarine, and even as transmission fluid in automobiles; many species were driven nearly to extinction, and the very [geochemical flows of Earth's oceans altered](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/blue-whale-poop/), before the anti-whaling movement [largely halted hunting in 1986](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Whaling_Commission#1986_moratorium). Some commercial whaling continues in Norway, Iceland and -- under scientific guise -- Japan, as do subsistence hunts by aboriginal groups, but the scale of the kills is far smaller than just a century ago. As sorrowful as the history is, it's also a story of triumph. "That these amazing creatures were endangered was a very important thing for the people of the world to recognize," said Flynn. "Now we have protection to ensure that subsequent generations of these creatures will be around to share the planet." The logbook above contains an account of voyages between 1830 and 1833 by the *William Rotch*, a whaling ship that [sailed out of New Bedford, Massachusetts](http://www.whalingmuseum.org/). Below is the skull of a rough-toothed dolphin engraved by a sailor on a whaling voyage during the 18th or 19th century. *Images: AMNH/D. Finnin*
Denis Finnin11inside-the-flipper
Inside the Flipper ------------------ Just why are whales so appealing? Part of it is the sheer size of many species, of course, but they're not the only large aquatic animals. Whale sharks, the largest fish, can reach 40 feet in length and weigh more than 20 tons, making them larger than many whales, but eliciting comparatively small interest. Flynn thinks whales are so interesting to us because they're mammals. "We have this common heritage," he said. "If you look at the details of the anatomy, the flipper of a whale is similar on the inside to a human arm. They're highly modified, but they retain a lot of the same arrangements." In the photo above, a boy holds his arm to a life-sized x-ray of a humpback whale flipper. The humpback's flippers can reach 19 feet long, giving them the world's longest arms. *Image: AMNH/D. Finnin*
Denis Finnin12whales-eye-view
Whale's-Eye View ---------------- Inside the Search and Destroy Theater, visitors to *Giants of the Deep* are treated to a virtual first-cetacean view of what it's like to be a sperm whale hunting for giant squid. The animation is based on actual data recorded on digital tags. One experience the theater can't convey is more existential. In the last few years, researchers have learned to [distinguish between the vocalizations](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/whale-talk/) made by different sperm whales. Instead of hearing a mass of undifferentiated clicks, they now hear dialogues, providing unprecedented insight into a long-lived, highly social species that [appear to have culture](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/sperm-whales/), and [maybe even names](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/whale-talk/). *Image: AMNH/R. Mickens*
