How Ancient Whales May Have Changed the Deep Ocean
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- Опубліковано 20 жов 2021
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It looks like the evolution of ocean-going whales like Borealodon may have affected communities found in the deep ocean, like the ones found around geothermal vents. And it turns out that when a whale dies, that’s just the beginning of the story.
Thanks to Ceri Thomas (nixillustration.com/), Julio Lacerda ( / juliotheartist , Franz Anthony (franzanth.com), and Lucas Lima (252mya.com/gallery/lucas-lima) for their illustrations featured in this episode! The reconstruction featured in the thumbnail is by Julio Lacerda!
Produced by Complexly for PBS Digital Studios
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References:
docs.google.com/document/d/1x... - Розваги
It makes you wonder how badly other animals were indirectly affected by whaling.
Exactly.
I think it would be like killing off almost all big herbivores on the surface of earth.
have you ever stoped to think that before us, the oceans would have thousands of whales on it, and could be easily seen from beaches ? like old roman and greek pantings. we definitely impact species we never heard of because we never met them.all gone now.
It was said that in the 1500s you could not take any journey on the sea without seeing a whale. A recent estimate has 2.9 million cetaceans killed by industrial whaling from 1900 to 1999.
Oh no, an apex predator hunted animals beneath it on the food chain to increase their own chances of survival.
`sorry, yes, what you said (already)... 😢
In a similar vein, after the extinction of North America's megafauna, one of California condors' main food sources became beached whales, which caused them to live closer to the coast (and may have kept them from extinction).
Oh no
Eons is rubbing off on me
I thought to myself "someone killed this whale on porpoise". I don't want to be this person.
Be that person. This is wonderful.
Blake would be proud
;0)
#dadjokes
You've caught Eonitis
I would like to learn how Baleen evolved. It's quite different from teeth and seems so specialized too. :)
my theory- a teeth whale had 2 nornal teeth fuse into 1, leaving a small gap between them. and the whale had to use its tounge to pick the food/stuff out of that tooth. and generation after gen more teeth fused
@@SAMURIADI It's not teeth. The teeth form even in modern whales, but are reabsorbed in utero. Anatomically they're derived from gum tissue
Interesting video idea 💡
This one might be for you. ua-cam.com/video/G0oKBPZODhM/v-deo.html
Awesome video idea!
Does it blow anyone else's mind that the largest animal in the history of Earth is one that's still around? That's wild to me.
Yes, it's amazing, this title seems like it should belong to a dinossaur or ancient animal like that. Unfortunatly, blue whale population is getting much smaller and at risk of extinction
Hey! That's me! Or the animal I studied, anyway. This is amazing, I love Eons so much. It's crazy to see the specimen I spent so much time on as the focus of one of your videos. I feel a little starstruck! Thanks for spotlighting this really cool fossil and spreading the good news of whale falls.
You guys should do a follow up video on what the Mesozoic falls were like since you mentioned evidence of a scavenged ichthyosaur. A big question is what happened to deep sea life after the events of the KT Mass Extinction Event. How did those lifeforms survive when big marine reptiles went extinct? Was the deep sea ecology similar or different to modern deep sea life?
Perhaps the vents and seeps became oases of life, as has been suggested for several previous mass excinction events.
Long time ago I did some research for a paper on fossil hot vent communities and I've found out, various not really closely related groups of mollusks, deep sea corals and arthropods colonized these types of environments multiple times in the last 540 million years. The conclusion was they went extinct each time leaving no descendants and each consecutive faunal assemblage was made of new species re-discovering and resettling these deep-sea habitats.
@@ProfezorSnayp That's incredible! Do you got any citations for this? Id love to learn more.
Wouldn't they be well shielded down there? It seems like the species part of an independent pelagic ecosystem would be ok.
That would be interesting. How long DID icthyosaurs survive after the KT mass extinction? And how does this tie into whales and development of vent and seep communities post KT event?
Due to the difficulty of finding and access fossils from the ocean floor, and the continuous subduction of ocean plates, may be it would be hard to know if the same process might have happened during the Mesozoic era where there were majestic massive marine reptiles that lived and died and fell to the abyss.
While it might be difficult to prove i think its a safe assumption. Large marine animal (air breathing) that is presumably full of nutrients (maybe they had as many lipids as whales, maybe they didn't) dies and sinks to the ocean floor which is resource poor, something is going to come scavenge that buffet. (Bears do it in the arctic when a whale washes up on the beach)
So even if the players were different i think its safe to assume that the same niches were being filled if "large marine airbreather corpse fall" reached the bottom lots of things will come to eat the flesh and bones. Sharks existed back then in a relatively similar form as today, so a goblin shark equivalent would definitely be munching on a plesiosaur fall.
@@jasonreed7522 well said!
Whales are one of my most favourite animals for many reasons. They are some of the most efficient ecological engineers in the marine ecosystem, their poop feed plankton, they help in the trapping of excess carbon and mitigating climate change and when they are dead their carcass supports a multitude of species for years. Whales don't get enough appreciation in helping to shape our planet.
Pretty sure they don’t trap carbon. Like all other mammals, they release co2 for their entire life, then more is released as their body breaks down.
It’s interesting to think that not only are whales and other cetaceans my favorite mammal group, but also they helped other marine life over millions of years by feeding the deep after a terrible anoxic event that killed ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs.
Didn't ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs die millions of years before the appearance of early whales?
@@Jason75913 yep, but im talking about the cenomanian-turonian anoxic event 93 million years ago that killed those reptiles. I know that whales appeared far after their death.
@@Mikailodon Were there other huge reptiles after that extinction? Crocodilians?
@@Jason75913 you mean c-t anoxic event or k-pg extinction event
I saw you in the livestream 😊
2:17 "There scavengers like sharks, hag-fishes, crustaceans and worms"
*sad octopi color patterns*
Blue green blue yellow silver blue! Silver black blue!
I always love Whale falls, these are some of the most fascinating events in the world
Whalesplosions are even more spectacular!
@@NoName-fc3xe But less ecologically impactful.
@@lonestarr1490 but more impactful when chunks of whale hit you in the face, considering that a whalefall would be slower than a whalesplosion. Lol
Where can I get tickets to the next Whale Fall event?
@@AJWRAJWR By buying every cosmetic items in Fallout 76 and praising the game online and then falling off your chair, you could be on the front row of an actual Whale Fall
What’s with the background graduation music? Perhaps PBS wants me to feel like I accomplished something today.
🤣🤣🤣
lmaooo this made me cackle 🤣
Level up!!!
LOL
@@kuibeiguahua LMBO!
Whalefall was a really underrated Bond film.
"Whalefall" sounds like something Hideo Kojima would put in his games.
Don’t give him any ideas…
Like Whaleio and princess beach?
"Norman Reedus running from Whale fetus"
@@sayaksarkar5891 No! Nonono!
There was one in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I still find it so surprising that whales’ ancestors were terrestrial. It’s amazing what evolution can do.
Ikr, my brother joined the Navy too!
something that fascinates me is the possibilities, those whales used to be size of a small deer and walked through the land.
could you imagine if humans went to the sea too? we would literally have mermaids.
@@jorgenitales412 I like that idea, although our earliest human ancestor was also a small rodent like animal (Morganucodon) if our ancestor had chosen to go into the sea we would most likely have evolved into something that looks similar to what we already see today 😅
@@ZeldasMask we'd probably end up like skinny manatees
absolutely incredible
Dead whale falls to the bottom of the ocean.
Deep sea scavengers: wE'lL tAkE yOuR eNtIrE sToCk!
It's free real estate!
allow us to introduce ourselves
Deep seas scavenger: *slaps whale carcass* this baby has so much oil in its bones!!!
Stop! Hammer time!
Crabs: *raving*
Perfect timing. Finally got off work for a late lunch and I was looking for something to watch. I love new uploads on this channel. Whale Falls are fascinating events to observe.
I was literally just binging this channel again wth
Intelligent people are laughing at you when you add the word literally to everything you say.
@@markfox1545 Intelligent people are laughing at you when you pretend to be intelligent.
It's the circle of life, death for a whale means life for tons of isopods, crabs, worms and other bottom feeders.
Many of us hope that no dead whale ever falls on us but those deep sea creatures have made the best of their incoming dead whales .
The whole idea of a giant dead creature being a stepping stone for much tinier organisms to move between one habitable place to another, across vast gulfs of barren, uninhabitable sea floor, makes me wonder if one day humans might also leave Earth, but find it too far to travel to another habitable planet, only to come across a gigantic, planet-sized biomass that we move onto and live off until we one day arrive in another solar system/galaxy and find a new place to settle.
Ah, man. Made my imagination pop up millions of tiny voices screaming "INCOMING!"
@@Zaxares Nah, stepping stones to a far away planet would be human-built outposts made along the way over time, if any.
That said, NASA started working on warp drive a couple of years ago, we're all hopeful that they'll have a working prototype within the next couple of decades. Based on hypothetical Alcubierre warp drive with modifications.
Whales are great example of evolution
And our ability to make species go extinct
Have you guys thought of making a podcast for PBS eons? I’d love to just listen to these content while i’m working. Love the knowledge I learned from here!
I find the evolution of whales and dolphins really fascinating
Is the effect of big dead ichthyosaurs (e.g. Aust Colossus), plesiosaurs, mosasaurs etc. sinking to the bottom of the ocean regarded to be less influential than whalefall due to the lipid content of the bones?
I'm not sure what the lipid content of the mesozoic marine reptiles was but there was certainly more of them back then than whales today (thanks humans and our overhunting ways) so even if they were less nutritious they would still have been a boon to the mesozoic ocean floor and atleast as common as whalefalls. (Even a less fatty corpse is still full of protein, fat, nucleic acids, and some sugars + mineral content)
Potentially, but if enough of them thrived in the oceans, then their numbers could have made up for their lack of lipid content. Just my guess.
Most likely they did help but not for as long . marine reptiles would have blubber but that would disappear quickly. The extra fat in whale bones would make it last longer.
I look forward to each episode, and immensely appreciate the recognition at the end of each, of fossils discovered on tribal lands. Nia:wen!
So would a Mesozoic whale fall equivalent be a "scale fall"?
Just shows how so much on Earth is connected to each other. Beautiful.
Fascinating, as always! Cue Elton John and his "Circle of Life." (I can’t really imagine Disney doing a movie musical about a colony of deep-sea creatures living in the decaying carcass of a whale, though.)
Years ago I saw a doc about whalefalls being an important part of the deep sea biosphere, acting like some sort of "gas station", where their bodies nourish a huge amount of sea creatures (many of them leading a nomadic lifestyle on the seafloor) for decades. Even after 50 years, there may still be leftovers from bones, with microorganisms subsist off of them, enabling survival of the bottom of the food chain. The extinction of whales might lead to the collapse of a myriad of environments and the disappearance of many more animals, directly affecting our own lives in an unfathomable way.. Here's hoping we might be able to preserve those wonderful creatures, and in doing so, save ourselves from a dire future.
Hey, Eons, I just wanted to say: thank you for the length you make these videos. As someone who has ADHD and is passionate about this stuff, it’s really great learning when you have a short attention span!
It helps me stave off executive dysfunction and actually get things DONE, and all videos are very rewatchable , so i frequently binge them when i have projects. Adhd hacks ftw!!!
If true, I would be interested in such a relationship between the deep sea and the aquatic reptiles of the Dinosaur Age. Presumably, the whales are replacing the ecological niche of nutrient supply that they left empty when they went extinct.
We need rich people falls.
Oh man how did you predict that
Ocean gate
lol 😂😂 I just picture a bunch of homeless or crackheads scavenging a dude in a fur coat and top hat 😂😂
This is one of the things that gives me some skepticism about the possibility of extraterrestrial life in sub-surface oceans. It's likely some of those environments would be able to support complex ecosystems including even multi-cellular animals. But could they actually do so completely on their own? On Earth such environments benefit greatly from the "sunlight fueled" biosphere being able to produce a rich diversity of organisms, and greasing the wheels of evolution for creatures that could survive in such environments. Outside of Earth if similar environments are much more restricted in their ability to support robust evolutionary processes then they might not get any more complex than a bunch of bacterial mats, even over billions of years. But I guess we'll never know until we investigate them up close.
you'd be interested in the story of Movile Cave, an underground ecosystem completely isolated from the outside world for 5.5 million years, first discovered by humans in 1986. It's ecosystem is entirely dependent on chemosynthesis of methane and hydrogen sulfide, no contact with the photosynthetic biosphere, and has some 50+ species endemic to it.
@@timothye.2902 Yes this! Thank you, I couldn't remember anything distinctive about that isolated area to look it up, but "oh oh! That cave, that one with the weird evolved creatures!" That's what came to my mind, lol. Thank you for sharing! I'm gonna go re-watch the SciShow videos where I first heard about it 👍😁
With this information, wouldn't it be reasonable to think that marine reptiles from the Mesozoic would be a part of a simular niche?
Was thinking the same thing
Same here
Probably for some species like the clams that were vent dwellers, but the extra fat in the bones made it last longer giving species a longer buffer zone to spread.
@@coreylouviere4466 that makes sense
They mentioned this at the start of the video with the Ichtiosaures, I think.
I still worry about Steve, I hope he didn’t die of the coronavirus.
he made an appearance on Sci-Show a few days ago
@@oucyan Is that so? I'll have to look that up, assuming you are aware that we're referring to a former Eontologist.
Steve is visiting the Whale Falls.
@@DFloyd84 thank the whale gods 🐋
me too lol i keep wondering what happened
Absolutely LOVE listening to you.
We could listen to you read almost any book. You're so smart , prepared and well spoken.
Alright , seriously though. Think about reading for the books on tape people.
Ahh so fantastic! Also, I'll be doing my PhD on microbial community of whalefalls!
The first abyssal animals to encounter a Whale Fall must have be wildin'!
“Yooo loook!!!!! It's a goddamned huuge buffet!!"
ancient equivalent of going to the grocery store while hungry. you buy (eat) everything lol
Whales 🐋 and their early history is always intriguing!
I wonder if there could be any similar effects from earlier large sea creatures like Megalodon?
Surely, but wouldn't last near as long after the initial decay because cartilaginous material breaks down pretty easily.
Super cool epsidoe. PBS Eons brings me so much joy
“Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began." -- Herman Melville, "Moby Dick".
There were a variety of sea-going large animals in the seas prior to the K-T extinction, presumably their corpses would have had much the same ecological characteristics.
I appreciate seeing indigenous land acknowledgments !! way to go pbs eons :)
Fascinating stuff as always.
I get so excited when new eons show up in my feed!
Usually I love Eons because I enjoy the reading out loud of information I mostly know to fall asleep - I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean, everyone needs to re-up sometimes and their presenters have a style I find very calming. I can listen to them until I decide my, yes, I can maybe try and sleep and then while I try and drift off I can think about these things and it's not overly straining but still enough that I don't get anxious as I often do trying to sleep at a hospital. But this one I have to say, it kept me really interested and awake.
Not what I wanted, but I'll definitely be looking at papers for this all night. I would have preferred the sleep but this was way more interesting!
Imagine the whale fall of Jurassic creatures like a Mousasour fall
The Aquarium of the Pacific had a fun whalefall tank. Design goals.
Good episode guys. Thanks
I love how you tell these stories 🙌🏾✔️
This episode makes me wonder how human whale hunting has affected the deep sea communities? Did the lack of food (because the whales nearly became extinct) cause any extinctions among the creatures which depend upon whale falls?
Great episode Kallie, as always
great episode!
Great Episode Yall!!!!!!! Love this channel sp much. Don't forget pinniped and tyrannosauird evolution story thanks!!!!
Great video! Super fascinating to hear about
It's nice that they acknowledged the natives
I love this channel so damn much man 😭 my absolute favourite
Great video, super interesting!
This people should do more clips, they every good.
Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
I love my PBS Eons with Kaely, love you guys
Great episode thanks a lot.
I love your videos. Thank you for your work
This reminds me a lot of how giant redwoods can become homes for life long after they die.
Yes. The thumbnail reminded me of nurse logs. I think they can be pretty much any tree, but it's very common in conifer forests.
Nice video 👍, everyone related has done a great job
i think we all share a collective sorrow over never being able to know which amazing organisms lived in our prehistoric trenches
Congrats on 2 mil!
Congrats on 2 million subs!
Whale fall episode!! I didn't know how much I needed this! 🥰🥰🥰
Loved the content
Great video ! I love science so much ! :)
Wicked cool. Interesting interactions.
My grandmother had a knife made by my grandfather from a manatee bone she had found. It was very oily looking and feeling. You talking about the lipid rich bones of the whale reminded me of it.
oh yes i've been waiting for this one
I met a geologist a decade or so ago, who was just about to publish a paper claiming that the Ediacaran fossils in the Burgess Shale inhabited thermal vents-which also created the rich metal ore deposits in the area-adjacent to an sub oceanic cliff, and were unusually preserved by a deep anoxic environment at the bottom of the cliff.
That happy moment when you tune in to UA-cam and PBS Eons has a new video! :-)
It doesn't even matter which presenter as they're all adorable.
congratz on 2m subs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well THIS is fascinating.
Thank you for another masterpiece video! Ooo now do one on scary whales like basilosaurus!
Love PBS BONS,so that's great
I love the illustrations your channel uses. It feels so real, they bring you there!
Thank you for working with those indigenous peoples
Fascinating!
I've never clicked a video so fast! Very cool info.
One of the best feelings in the world is clicking on a new PBS Eons video and the first thing you hear is Kallie Moore's voice. I love you, Kallie Moore. 😍😍
Whale evolution is my favorite to think about. Crazy that a social land mammal evolved to dominate the sea
Best joke in awhile. Kallie, your comedic timing is impeccable.
Long live PBS Eons
I love the music of this episode
impressed by the saurofraud joke. very clever.
This is a really interesting video, I wonder how much modern industrial whaling did to depopulate the deep ocean.
Huge shoutout from ur brazilian fans 💖💖
Shout-out to my favorite creature the bone eating snotflower! I fell in love with them when I first saw them on Bones turning a skeleton furry pink 😆
thank you for the acknowledgement.
I just learned a bit about this is Oceanography!! I love this further in debt story!! I forgot how important whales are to the bottom of the ocean!!
So did the Mesozoic have... Mosasaur falls? Ichtyosaur falls? Something like that?
No
Yes they do. Evidence are in the bones.
I never realized just how important the whale species are in the ecosystem. Its a shame they've been hunted to near extinction by humanity. This just shows how incredibly important it is to protect these creatures from being hunted, so they can continue to fulfil their niche.
Is that blue whale silhouette to scale in comparison to her?
If so, that is MASSIVE. I continue to be amazed on how big the Earth is.
Pale blue dot?