On 3/29/06, Beth.Fulton@xxxxxxxx <Beth.Fulton@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
G'day,
> Don't the deep diving sperm whales have air in
> their lungs? Their lungs are probably
> compressible, but they still have air no?
For one Sperm whales don't go to the abyssal depths, they only go down
3000m. They also do this by having lungs that are (proportionally) less
than half those of terrestrial mammals, but they exchange much more
[...]
SO basically whales do it by keeping air pockets to a minimum, which is
the way all deep sea creatures do it too. They don't have air filled
bladders they have oil filled. Less pressure concerns that way, less
equalisation issues for the degree of vertical movement they may do on
short time scales.
Why I love this list. You learn some of the best things on here you might not elsewhere without a lot of digging. :-)
Mk