Blue whale size mystery solved

Growing up to 30 metres long and weighing a whopping 200 tonnes, blue whales are the largest creatures on the planet. However, fossil records suggest that baleens (the species of whale to which blue whales belong) were originally no more than about 10 metres long. So how did they end up becoming the colossal creatures that exist today? The results of a recent scientific study could hold the answer. Millions of years ago, baleen whales roamed the seas, eating small marine life such as plankton and krill. Their favoured foods were plentiful and they didn’t have to travel far to find them. Then, around 4.5 million years ago, climate change caused the oceans to get cooler. One result of this was that krill populations massively increased in certain areas of…

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The Week Junior (Digital) - 1 Issue, No. 79

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