Cyber ​​Heroes

Chapter 873 Whales
"Sperm...sperm whale? False teeth?"

"That's what humans call it." The orca Takata explained, not knowing whether he meant "sperm whale" or "false teeth".

Whales are divided into toothed whales and baleen whales.Toothed whales, as their name suggests, are whales with traditionally tapered teeth.Most of these whales are traditional predators, preying on larger creatures.

Baleen whales are different.Baleen whales have completely degenerated teeth.Instead, there are fine baleen in the mouth.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 gulp down water, then lift their tongues to force the water out from between their mouths.As the water passes through the whale, the baleen whales trap large amounts of plankton in the sea.From water fleas invisible to the naked eye, to medium and large fish with a body length of nearly [-] meter, baleen whales can basically eat anything.

Sperm whales are large toothed whales whose staple food is large molluscs—such as large deep-sea squid represented by giant squid and giant squid.They also have super diving ability.The squid in the deep sea is not strong in sports, and basically has no resistance to sperm whales.The giant head of the sperm whale, which takes up one-third of its body, is actually filled with fat.This huge cavity is also the organ where they release powerful ultrasonic waves.

But in contrast, the lower jaw of the sperm whale is very, very small.

It was pitifully small compared to his huge forehead.

"Ah, that's right, so the mandibles of Hopkins and the others are also artificial." The killer whale sighed: "If they don't artificially expand the size of their mouths, they won't be able to eat at all."

A typical baleen whale, such as a blue whale, has a giant mouth.And even that is not enough.There are many folds between the lower jaw and the abdomen of the blue whale.This allows this part of the limb to expand widely.Blue whales can swallow a large amount of seawater in one gulp, and then slowly filter out the tiny creatures inside.

But the tiny squid-sucking mouth of the sperm whale can't do this kind of thing at all.

Not even with an artificial jaw.

The solution to this problem is prosthetic transformation.

Humans used a technique similar to "ostomy" to make several openings at the end of the mouth of sperm whales like Hopkins.These openings bypass important blood vessels and body cavities, and there are also a large number of filters similar to whalebone inside the mouth.

Also filter-feeding, cartilaginous fish such as whale sharks do not need to use baleen to filter seawater.The gill rakers that sharks possess can take on similar tasks with minor modifications.Whale sharks can do much the same as baleen whales simply by gulping water.

And some predatory sharks even use "swallowing water" as a means of speeding up.

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

These benchmarked giant toothed whales have completely changed their feeding habits under the effect of prosthesis and modification, and even swim faster and stronger than their ancestors.

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

These whales gained wisdom after the Infection One event.Due to the 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 benchmarking process was Homo sapiens benchmarking surgery.In other words, the closer animals are to humans, the less difficult it is to rescue them.

The success rate of saving whales is far greater than that of saving sharks.

These whales only gained their present intelligence after the extinction of the sharks.Even if the first generation of whales still remember the stories of their ancestors, it is difficult for them to describe animals such as whale sharks in detail from a scientific perspective, let alone design whale-based body modifications based on this.

The experiences and stories passed down from generation to generation by human ancestors were all unconsciously processed into myths by humans themselves in the age of no words.The heroic deeds of a well-known and accomplished hero in mythology may come from more and older mythological heroes.And the original bodies of those heroes are more ancestors who have been forgotten.

"Perhaps Hercules' legendary feat of hunting and stripping the Nemean lion's skin came from the gossip of a chief who hunted and killed a large lion bragging to his descendants about his life's pride." A friend once said to Xiang Shan So describe it.

Human beings are still like this, needless to say the whales before gaining wisdom.

While Xiang Shan was thinking, a killer whale whimpered.He seemed unbearably hungry.Afterwards, he also called twice to the sperm whale at the foot of the mountain.

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

Xiang Shan wondered, "What is this for?"

"Milk." Kleedage explained: "The milk of large whales is the only source of food we can obtain stably. Although electricity replaces most of the energy generated by breathing, the flesh still needs nutrients. Now There are not many big fish in the sea that can be hunted by dolphins..."

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

These large whales are also genetically tuned to produce milk regardless of whether they are nursing young.The milk of whales is also quite different from that of land animals.Whale milk has a very high fat content, and it cannot be melted in seawater for a while.Moreover, whales can rely on their own strength to eject milk, instead of requiring their young to actively absorb it like land mammals.

These large whales rely on their own physical advantages to travel long distances to filter and feed on plankton in different sea areas.In this era of mass extinction, the oceans have an extremely low density of life.If they only feed in one place, it is easy to eat the local animals to extinction, so the big whales have to do this.

Sometimes, they also need to bring the growing orcas that eat the most and need the most food.

Adult killer whales will take the initiative to undergo a complete prosthetic transformation to get rid of hunger completely.However, these juvenile killer whales are similar to humans, and premature full prosthesis will lead to fierce conflicts between instinct and prosthesis, resulting in huge psychological problems.

Besides, adult killer whales are too fierce, but for juvenile killer whales, baleen whale-like sperm whales can calm them down simply by virtue of their physical strength.It's not scary even if they lose their minds.

Xiang Shan sighed: "How did you think...to live together?"

"We are the only ones who survived." Kleidage said: "Large whales only have single digits, and they belong to different populations. They are passed down from generation to generation by cloning technology. They are also very afraid of being alone. And we Can't do without them. We have to be together."

　I watched some whale documentaries yesterday and forgot the time.Sorry everyone.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)