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Samantha Price says blue whale’s large size linked to diet of tiny creatures

EarthSky

Samantha Price: The blue whale which is – we think – is probably the largest ever living mammal… eats these tiny, almost microscopic krill and plankton. So this seems very strange, that you have a very large size, and um, but you’re eating something so small.

薩曼塔·普萊斯：藍(lán)鯨可能是有史以來(lái)最大的哺乳動(dòng)物，它們的獵物——磷蝦及浮游生物——體型卻非常微小，幾乎用顯微鏡才能看見(jiàn)。這很奇怪，因?yàn)樗鼈儔K頭很大，吃的東西卻這么小。

You're listening to Samantha Price, a researcher at the University of California, Davis. In a study published in May 2010, Price found that there’s a strong connection between what whales eat, and how they evolved to be so large.

您剛才聽(tīng)到的是加州大學(xué)戴維斯分校研究員薩曼塔·普萊斯的講話(huà)。普萊斯在一項(xiàng)研究中發(fā)現(xiàn)鯨的龐大體型與它們的食物結(jié)構(gòu)有密切聯(lián)系，這一成果今年5月得到了發(fā)表。

Samantha Price: The diet of an animal is linked to a lot of other aspects of its biology; such as where it lives, so how it interacts with its environment, as well as its size.

薩曼塔·普萊斯：飲食結(jié)構(gòu)會(huì)影響到動(dòng)物的其他生理習(xí)性，比如對(duì)棲息地的選擇，與周?chē)h(huán)境的互動(dòng)方式以及體型的大小。

For example, Price said, the 160-metric ton blue whale evolved a huge mouth – allowing it to eat millions of tiny krill each day.

普萊斯表示，以藍(lán)鯨為例，這個(gè)重達(dá)160公噸的大塊頭進(jìn)化出了一張巨大的嘴，每天能吞下成千上萬(wàn)只小磷蝦。

Samantha Price: So if you specialize to catch vast quantities of these highly abundant and nutritious prey, it provides you the energy that you need to grow so big.

薩曼塔·普萊斯：如果你擅長(zhǎng)捕食磷蝦這類(lèi)數(shù)量龐大、營(yíng)養(yǎng)豐富的獵物，每天大量進(jìn)食，便能得到充足的能量維持巨大的體型。

Price added that the whale family has the most diverse body sizes of any mammal family, from the giant blue whale down to porpoises and dolphins. She said that fish eaters – like dolphins – evolved smaller bodies over time. That makes it easier to maneuver when catching fish close to the ocean’s surface.

普萊斯還說(shuō)，鯨類(lèi)家族在哺乳動(dòng)物當(dāng)中體型最為多樣，有巨大的藍(lán)鯨，也有較小的小鯨和海豚。她告訴記者，捕食魚(yú)類(lèi)的動(dòng)物（如海豚）經(jīng)過(guò)漫長(zhǎng)的進(jìn)化體型有所變小。這使得它們?cè)诳拷竺娴乃虿妒倡C物時(shí)行動(dòng)更加自如。?

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