Whales are the smartest. Fish came out of water onto land and evolved into mammals. Whales said “nope, fuck that” and went back. The longer I live on land, I can see why.
Fun fact: Life went from the water to the land and back multiple times! It wasn’t a linear thing, evolution just does whatever because it’s random by nature.
Nature: come over
Life: I’m busy tonight, got plans
Nature: I’ve got a niche that needs filling
Life: Already on the way
But that doesn’t some very intelligently designed?!
evolution just does whatever because it’s random by nature.
Mutation is random. But evolution is mutation + natural selection, which isn’t random.
Amphibians:
Crocodilians: “Told ya you’d be back.”
Whales: “We are so back.”
Whales during the whaling heyday : it’s so over
Whatever works. One record is nearly 3000m deep for over two hours.
Air has a higher concentration of oxygen than water, hence it’s physiologically easier (and more reliabel looking at the correlation of water temp and oxygen saturation) to meet ones oxygen needs by breathing air and wales had no disadvantage opting for lungs instead of gills.
Living in the sea and breathing atmospheric high O2 air is a massive boon.
I wonder if whales will ever evolve a supplementary sort of gill system, not to replace their lungs but to enhance their dive time.
That seems like the best of both worlds
