How Massive Whales Swallow Big Gulps of Food: Stretchy Bungee Cord Nerves

First Posted: May 05, 2015 08:37 AM EDT
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How do whales swallow such big gulps of krill? Scientists have long wondered how rorqual whales, which are baleen whales, can engulf massive mouthfuls of food. Now, they've discovered a unique nerve structure in the mouth and tongue of rorqual whales that can double in length and then recoil like a bungee cord.

In humans, stretching nerves usually damages them. In whales, in contrast, the nerve cells are packaged inside a central core in such a way that the individual nerve fibers are never really stretched; they simply unfold.

"This discovery was totally unexpected and unlike other nerve structures we've seen in vertebrates, which are of a more fixed length," said Wayne Vogl, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The rorquals' bulk feeding mechanism required major changes in anatomy of the tongue and mouth blubber to allow large deformation, and now we recognize that it also required major modifications in the nerves in these tissues so they could also withstand the deformation."

When these whales feed, their throats and mouths balloon outward. Currently, researchers aren't sure whether any similar structures will be found in the ballooning throats of frogs or the long and fast tongues of chameleons.

"This discovery underscores how little we know about even the basic anatomy of the largest animals alive in the oceans today," said Nick Pyenson, one of the researchers. "Our findings add to the growing list of evolutionary solutions that whales evolved in response to new challenges faced in marine environments over millions of years."

The findings are published in the journal Current Biology.

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