鲸鱼从未长得比现在更大

鲸鱼从未长得比现在更大

Both toothed and baleen (filter-feeding) whales are among the largest animals ever to exist. Blue whales, which measure up to 100 feet (30 meters) long and can weigh over 150 tons, are the largest animals in the history of life on Earth.

齿鲸和须鲸都是现存最大的动物之一。蓝鲸身长可达100英尺(30米)，体重可达150多吨，是地球生命史上最大的动物。

Although whales have existed on this planet for some 50 million years, they only evolved to be truly gigantic in the past five million years or so. Researchers have little idea what limits their enormous size. What is the pace of life at this scale, and what are the consequences of being so big?

虽然鲸鱼在这个星球上已经存在了大约5000万年，但它们只是在过去的500万年左右才进化成真正的庞然大物。研究人员不知道是什么限制了它们巨大的体型。在这个尺度上，生活的节奏是怎样的?

As scientists who study ecology, physiology and evolution, we are interested in this question because we want to know the limits to life on Earth, and what allows these animals to live at such extremes.

作为研究生态学、生理学和进化的科学家，我们对这个问题很感兴趣，因为我们想知道地球上生命的极限，以及是什么让这些动物生活在如此极端的环境中。

In a newly published study, we show that whale size is limited by the largest whales' very efficient feeding strategies, which enable them to take in a lot of calories compared to the energy they burn while foraging.

在一项新发表的研究中，我们发现鲸鱼的体型受到了最大的鲸鱼非常有效的进食策略的限制，这种策略使它们能够摄入大量的卡路里，而不是在觅食时消耗的能量。