Comments on: 5 Extreme Mammals

By: KoKo

KoKo — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:25:49 +0000

Re blue whales,

The major reason why blues and other whales can get so big has nothing to do with their diet. It is that water supports their weight, so their skeleton doesn’t have to.

The weight of an animal goes up with its volume, which is measured in meters cubed, while the strength of its bones goes up (roughly speaking) with its cross section, which is measured in meters squared. As an animal gets bigger and bigger, the bones required to support its weight must get bigger, faster, until eventually the animal reaches a practical size limit, where as much of it is bone as possible (and it is virtually a stationary tower.) (And that, by the way, is why you cannot have an ant the size of a skyscraper, 50′s horror movies aside. If you just scaled up the ant, the weight would go up faster than its structural strength. A skyscraper ant would collapse on its belly, immobile.)

But with whales and other creatures whose weight is supported by water, the limit is set by availability of food, and that is a very high limit. I imagine even larger animals than blue whales could evolve, eventually.

Incidentally, that is also why bigger dirigibles are more cost-effective than small ones. You can double the fabric in a dirigible, and get much more than double the lifting power.

By: Case

Case — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:40:21 +0000

Could the “author” of the article please respond regarding the inaccuracies pointed out in the comments? I’m not criticizing – just curious and confused.

By: ryan

ryan — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:13:42 +0000

Mitheral beat me to it. There are more than two. In addition to the Loris and the species of shrew mentioned, solenodons are also venomous.

By: * MISS UNIVERSE

* MISS UNIVERSE — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 06:48:39 +0000

Would also be interesting to discover which animals have the highest IQs

By: matt

matt — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:39:49 +0000

Blue whales eat krill not plankton which are animals so the moral is to get big and strong you have to butcher and eat mass quantities of meat!!

Viva la beef

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 12:05:26 +0000

I agree w/algonkin ))

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 06:04:02 +0000

The male platypus is one of only two known venomous mammals.

Actually while not common there are several venomous mammals including the Eurasian water shrew, Southern Short-tailed Shrew, Northern Short-tailed Shrew, Cuban Solenodon, and Haitian Solenodon. And of course the platypus.

Also there is the sort of venomous Slow Loris. These mammals have poison glands on their elbows which they suck on to get poison in their mouths subsequently delivering a poison bite.

By: Jonn

Jonn — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:57:06 +0000

Sloths move so slowly on land that they only come down from the trees to poop once every (I think) 3 days (it may be longer, but it’s definitely not shorter). They can’t just poop in the trees because predators would smell it and kill them ‘cuz they’d still be in the same tree. So they climb down to the ground, dig a hole, poop in the hole, and BURY the poop.

BURY!

They poop in a hole and cover it with dirt because they’re too lazy to have evolved the ability to move quickly on land.

By: Wil

Wil — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:41:38 +0000

This article is filled with inaccuracies. period. check your facts.

By: Marla

Marla — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 14:18:00 +0000

150 tons for a bluewhale – that is a lot of olankton to eat

By: algonkin

algonkin — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:24:02 +0000

Rhinos are not the thickest…you should see some of the people I work with.

By: quinnn

quinnn — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:35:20 +0000

same here

By: Jonsend

Jonsend — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:03:53 +0000

Hehe, so was I

By: Mr S

Mr S — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:31:48 +0000

Thank you, Retrokatze, I was just about to say the same thing (more or less).

By: Johnald_Chaffinch

Johnald_Chaffinch — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 09:39:28 +0000

plankton includes animals as well, so it’s not a vegetarian diet.

sloths can swim pretty fast.

By: Retrokatze

Retrokatze — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 09:35:29 +0000

Some people argue that a vegetarian diet can’t support a large life-form. They obviously haven’t met the blue whale (Balenoptera musculus), a massive creature that survives on plankton.

Plankton consists of phytoplankton, bacterioplankton AND zooplankton: (from Greek zoon, or animal), small protozoans or metazoans (e.g. crustaceans and other animals) that feed on other plankton and telonemia. Some of the eggs and larvae of larger animals, such as fish, crustaceans, and annelids, are included here.

So, the Blue Whale is most definitely not a vegetarian!