Mysteries of the abyss: Whale falls as biodiversity hotspot

Mario Lebrato · Issue 36, May/Jun 2007 · pp. 48

Cetaceans or whales as they are normally known are interesting from an evolutionary point of view, since they are so different from their ancestors. Fur-covered land mammals were once the predecessors of these magnificent creatures that roam the oceans today. They have followed a macroevolutionary transition from a terrestrial to an aquatic way of life, making them the biggest “parcels” of organic matter swimming in the seas. Classified within the Cetacea, this order is divided further into two distinct groups: toothed whales in the suborder Odontoceti, and baleen whales in the suborder Mysticeti. After this brief characterisation, lets leave apart their bioecological classification and peculiarities, and concentrate in an important aspect of their existence. Whales are wonderful animals when alive from different perspectives, however, for the oceans, they constitute the biggest reservoi…