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A Blue whale can consume as many as 40 million krill per day, if that's not a predator, not sure what one is.

by wonderous 9y ago

doikor 9y ago
A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic. A billion just a foot note?
- protomyth 9y ago
  Do you want to write a song for the dead krills? Go ahead, write one. On a more serious, less timely paraphrase, the shear amount of death at the bottom of the food chain both on land and at sea is mind boggling.
  - evincarofautumn 9y ago
    Yup, all food is death. Vegetarians and vegans are just picking their ethical battles, really. I sometimes idly wonder things like how far we are from sci-fi synthesis of a complete diet from entirely inorganic materials that have never been in a living thing. It might even become a necessity as a spacefaring species. Although, humans separated by interstellar distances would almost certainly diverge to the point where maintaining a single “species” becomes dubious, even if you had constant interbreeding, so you might have humans eating local plants & animals on other planets that are nutritionally useless or hazardous to Earthlings.
52-6F-62 9y ago
They certainly evolved from rather toothy predators as well. For anybody in Toronto I highly recommend the Blue Wale exhibit at the ROM! They have an entire skeleton and it is humbling and awesome. If you're able to go, then go before it ends here. I think it's touring after it finishes up there. https://www.rom.on.ca/en/blue-whale https://www.rom.on.ca/en/blue-whale edit: Adding more info -- * Photos from the excavation of the carcass https://www.rom.on.ca/en/collections-research/research-community-projects/blue-whale https://www.rom.on.ca/en/collections-research/research-commu... * Photo of the skeleton and vague tour plans https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/08/29/roms-blue-whale-to-hit-the-road.html https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/08/29/roms-blue-wha... * Video from the exhibit, including the skeleton https://www.rom.on.ca/en/learn/activities/at-rom/bluewhale https://www.rom.on.ca/en/learn/activities/at-rom/bluewhale * Photo essay and back story http://projects.thestar.com/rom-blue-whale/ http://projects.thestar.com/rom-blue-whale/

A Blue whale can consume as many as 40 million krill per day, if that's not a predator, not sure what one is.

doikor 9y ago

A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic. A billion just a foot note?

protomyth 9y ago
Do you want to write a song for the dead krills? Go ahead, write one. On a more serious, less timely paraphrase, the shear amount of death at the bottom of the food chain both on land and at sea is mind boggling.
- evincarofautumn 9y ago
  Yup, all food is death. Vegetarians and vegans are just picking their ethical battles, really. I sometimes idly wonder things like how far we are from sci-fi synthesis of a complete diet from entirely inorganic materials that have never been in a living thing. It might even become a necessity as a spacefaring species. Although, humans separated by interstellar distances would almost certainly diverge to the point where maintaining a single “species” becomes dubious, even if you had constant interbreeding, so you might have humans eating local plants & animals on other planets that are nutritionally useless or hazardous to Earthlings.

52-6F-62 9y ago

They certainly evolved from rather toothy predators as well. For anybody in Toronto I highly recommend the Blue Wale exhibit at the ROM! They have an entire skeleton and it is humbling and awesome. If you're able to go, then go before it ends here. I think it's touring after it finishes up there. https://www.rom.on.ca/en/blue-whale https://www.rom.on.ca/en/blue-whale edit: Adding more info -- * Photos from the excavation of the carcass https://www.rom.on.ca/en/collections-research/research-community-projects/blue-whale https://www.rom.on.ca/en/collections-research/research-commu... * Photo of the skeleton and vague tour plans https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/08/29/roms-blue-whale-to-hit-the-road.html https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/08/29/roms-blue-wha... * Video from the exhibit, including the skeleton https://www.rom.on.ca/en/learn/activities/at-rom/bluewhale https://www.rom.on.ca/en/learn/activities/at-rom/bluewhale * Photo essay and back story http://projects.thestar.com/rom-blue-whale/ http://projects.thestar.com/rom-blue-whale/