I understand, generally, *how* they got that big but not *why*. What was the evolutionary advantage to their massive size? Is there one? Or are they just big for the sake of being big?
In: Biology
1. Partially they’re big because it pays off to be big. No predators for adult blue whales.
2. Partially it’s about efficiency. Have you ever wondered why transport ships are so big? Well. When swimming, the bigger you are the better the ratio is for weight vs the effort to transport that weight. A blue whale utilizes that to be really efficient when it comes to swimming (minimum amount of calories spent per kilo of whale per kilometer), and they use that bulk to basically become a big krill consuming factory that goes from one shoal of krill to another and vacuum up everything and converting that biomass into more whale.
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