Why Are Sea Creatures Evolving Into Giants?
Sea Creatures
Hello friends, I am Abhishek and just look at this image, this is the largest creature living on land, the African Elephant.
And look at this image, this is the world’s largest creature living in water, the Blue Whale, which I compare with the African Elephant. Just by asking, it is equal. Only blue whales are infected, why are these giant jellyfish? You will not believe it, but giant jellyfish you will not believe it, but it is equal to 10 elephants and this creature is equal to four elephants and finally,
look at the length of this oarfish, all these sea creatures are creatures living on land. It is many times more huge than the sea, so the clear sea is giving some advantage to the creatures living there, which perhaps the land creatures are not getting. Did you know? About 150 million years ago, the story was completely opposite to that of living on land. The creatures living in water used to be much larger than the creatures living in water, some were literally as big as 6 floors, so now the question arises here, what has changed on our earth in the last 150 million years that today the same advantages are available on land. Not the living beings but the sea creatures are getting it.
Cidade University 2023 ( brazil )
To find the answer to this question, one day in 2023, researcher Filipe Silva of Cidade University, Brazil, and his team were conducting a study on sea creatures. For this, they took 19 species of sea mammals whose size is usually more than 10 m. Now here it is specifically sea mammals because Philip and his team knew that in all the mammals present on earth, a total of 9 genes are responsible for growth and out of these 9 genes, the mutation combination of any two genes can affect the growth of land-dwelling animals. They are also found in mammals. Comparison of genes would be a more accurate mark, so Philip and his team took 19 sea mammals and started looking for 9 growth genes in them. Surprisingly, they found that out of all 19 sea mammals, 19 of them had those genes. Out of the nine genes, at one time there were combinations of minimum four genes, unlike land mammals, which had only two genes, that is, it would not be wrong to say that due to the combined effects of these four, the size of marine mammals was less than that of land-dwelling mammals. There is more competition. Now the question comes that why are the mammals in need of these extra growth genes as soon as they go into water, that instead of two, they are becoming four. After all, what is the reason behind this evolution? Exactly this thing. To find out the reason, I and my team did research and when we were referring to the studies done on these sea creatures, we came across a very interesting thing. We found a study according to which a gas is responsible for the growth of sea creatures. responsible, which is found in large quantities in the depths of the sea. In fact, in that study of the year 1999, biologist Gothal along with his team had collected prawns from different water bodies and they measured the sizes of about 1800 prawn species side by side. Now after comparing, they noticed that the size of some prawns was 6 times bigger than the others, so to find out the reason for this, they started studying the habitats of all those big prawns i.e. their living place and the environment there. After which the prawns they got were fashionable to observe.
After that, what they found was extremely fascinating. they observed that the small size of the prawns were all the prawns living in shallow waters. and the larger prawns were all the prawns living in the deep sea.
Further research concluded that the deep sea water is very cold. and that’s why the oxygen there dissolves more than the surface. and that’s the gas that helps the prawns grow in the deep sea. now, I know, you must be thinking, what is the relationship between oxygen and size? well, it’s a very deep relationship. actually a very common-sense thing came out of gauthier-chapelle’s research. who do the fishes breathe? the gills, we all know that. the gills of the fishes are the oragans that help them to absorb oxygen from the water into the body. now because the amount of oxygen in cold water is high, so, naturally, to absorb that excess oxygen, the size of the fish gills increased over time. because as soon as the body’s cells get more oxygen, their cell metabolism become fast and efficient, which also makes the muscles grow. and ultimately, the problem is that more oxygen mean bigger gills, and then a bigger to handle the bigger gills. and then, bigger gills to absorb more oxygen for a bigger body. that is, from the stuies referred to, it finally concludes that more oxygen in the deep sea and genetics are the two main reason that are making the sizes the marine creatures unusually larze.
But the story doesn’t end here. The first research that philip did missed one thing. we’ve only talked about fishes so far. what about underwater mammals? as soon as philip’s research was published, The researcher of the guelph in canada, andy turco, found that there is a major loophole in this research. Now, the rest of the fishes understand that they have gills. but the biggest creature in the sea the blue whale, which is a mammal, not a fish. this blue whale doesn’t go into the water, but it comes to the surface and takes a breath, and then goes to the underwater to swim. so, what about the land mammals? because of the fact that there are only two extra genes compared to the mammals, its size has increased so much. well, to fill this loophole, the researcher andy turco started a separate independent research with his team. and he thought, why don’t we take such fishes this time, who live on both water and land, so that they can easily find out the size difference. and for this, he chose a mangrove revulus, an amphibian species, which can live on both water and land like a frog. He basically made two groups of these amphibious fishes,
One of which he kept in water for two weeks, and the other on the ground, so that they can find out the effect of both enviroments on them. amd according to me, this study very beautifully demonstrated how biology affects physics. actually, as soon as two weeks passed, andy turco saw that the fish that were kept on the ground, their reed bones were much thicker and stiffer than the fish that were kept on the ground. Now, this only happens when a living being starts exreriencing more gravity regularly. But on earth, gravity is more or less the same everywhere, right? it’s mot like these experienced more gravity on the ground. so then, what exactly changed in both these enviroments?
Well, if I give you a small hint, you eill answer it yourself. tell me, if you throw a tannis ball and a stone in the water, what do you think will sink and what will float? obviously, the stone will sink, and the tennis ball will float. and this a because, as soon as something falls into the water, it pushes down its weight. and response, the water pushes that thing up with the some force, with a force called buoyancy. and because of this force, marine life gets extra freedom. they get extra liberty in being able to increase their size unnaturally. Because, if an elephant is as big as a blue whale, No matter how thick its bones are, The buoyancy it gets from the air can’t help the gravity as much as the water helps the blue wahles. besides, the average density of the living creatures in the water is 1075kg per meter cube.whereas, the average density of Seawater is 1026kg per meter cube. which means, like a stone, most of the living creatures in the water are heavier than water. and so, to make themselves float like a tennis ball, all the marine creatures avolve some adaptations within themseleves, with the help of which, their weight decreases from the weight of water. and this is also a reason why they have to increase their size. like for example, to make their body float, they make such ammonium-rich fluids in their bodies,
Which are lighter than water. some marine creatures like sharks make a gas called squalene in their liver, and leleost fishes fill their bladder with air, so that they can float. now, to make all these special types of fluids and gases, these creatures obviously need some special buoyancy organs. so, far these very organs, to make extra space in their bodies, many times, the sizes of marine creatures drastically increase compared to those of land creatures. which means, by filling the loophole in philip’s research,
Andy Turco proved that the number one reason behind the size of sea creatures to grow abnormally, is their genetic makeup. and the number two reason is that
1. genetic makeup
2. dissolved oxygen
But along with this, the number three reason is that the tug of war between gravity and buoyancy of sea creatures, Is also an undue advantage to the marine creatures.
And this is the reason why their size is increasing in comparison to those of land creatures. but then again, these three reasons don’t tell us what was the difference on earth 150 million years ago. that at that time some land creatures were twice as huge as blue whales. whereas at that time, the largest creatures of water were as big as today’s african elephants. Now, when we did some research on this, we found out that the dinosaurs that ruled the earth at that time, were mainly cold-blooded creatures. that is, to keep their bodies warm, they used to absorb heat from the surrounding enviroment. and because of this, they didn’t have to waste their own energy like mammals. now in this case, because at that time, the amount of cabon dioxide on the earth was quite hing, so the trees and plants there started to bloom rapidly. and the carnivorous dinasaurs like sauropods, could also get more energy to grow. but along with this, to keep this big body warm, this carbon dioxide, due to the greenhouse effect, trapped a lot of soler energy in the air. that is, it created a perfect formula, which was only favorable for the land creatures of that time.
Whereas the cold-blooded creatures living in the water, were deprived of this advantage due the coooling of the water.
All in all friends, of this whole story is expained in very simple words, then we can say that all the creatures born on this earth, have come with a body like clay. and nature is that potter, who, according to him, puts this caly in any shape he wants, depending upon the requirement of that time. but like clay, the bodies of organisms also have weak points.
Just like clay cannot withstand extreme heat or cold, The bodies of organisms also cannot withstand extreme heat or cold, and that is why, in such extreme conditions, they get stuck like this clay model. Now, such extreme conditions were there 200 million years ago, due to which a mass extinction took place, and 90% of the world’s species, became extinct. but, like they say, life never stops. after this extinction, some creatures emerged, who, in the blink of an eye, took over the entire world.
Yes, i am talking about dinosaurs. Who ruled the earth for about 150 million years. i have covered their entire story in my article,