Why are blue whales so enormous? - Asha de Vos

Blue whales are the largest animals on the planet, but what helps them grow to the length of a basketball court? Asha de Vos explains why the size of krill make them the ideal food for the blue whale -- it's as if the blue whale was made to eat krill (and krill was made to be eaten by the blue whale).

Lesson by Asha De Vos, animation by Cognitive Media.

[Silverwing]

The narrator is a marine biologist named Asha De Vos and she was one of the people who actually researched migration patterns of Blue Whales in Sri Lanka!

[Dee-jpek]

Aside from being informative this was both off putting and adorable

[GorArkson]

Again at 2am
Youtube: why are blue whales large
Me: well, let's find out!!

[nathanieltheoneandonly]

This looks like an episode of Sesame Street

[RipTheJackR]

In evolotionary biology the "why" question can be tough, because in that context you often ask "what made natural selection force this animal into becoming this size". I guess when eating large quantities of small organisms then size matters, higher net gain in energy, in a fashion that couldnt be competed out with smaller whales having less need to sustain themselves but also having a relative drop in energy source as well. Then you got the aspect of potential predators etc, a just-so story.

[thebrutusmars]

Does the animation remind you of don't hug me I'm scared?

[ZaxorVonSkyler]

I thought we agreed to never be creative again!!!

[FIONAful]

Very well done ..fast and informative. I have some friends id recommend this kind of teaching to...seriously, I know lots of adults who don't know things like this anf don't have good ability to concentrate for long periods of time, who had problems learning at school when young. I would definitely send videos like this one to them. Thankyou for posting it here.

[julesgarcia]

"It's so fu*king big"
-Tori Black

[nemanja]

A question for people who study biology. Is there such a thing as a size trap in evolutionary terms? It seems evolution favours growing bigger as a defense against predators and for other reasons. But bigger animals need more food and when a disaster happens, like a great extinction event, the bigger species generally can't adapt and die out. Which means big species like the BW or T-Rex dominate the world in their era but eventually tend to die out becoming evolutionary dead ends, failures. Or am I wrong?

[truvelocity]

The puppets were hilarious. I love to laugh.

[songworks]

This is great. Very beautifully made. Thanks for sharing it with us!

[pnogas]

GREAT animator. I want to see more by him/her.

[josevst]

I find it a bit strange how kidsy this is compared to most other videos on the channel, but hats off i'd still watch the heck out of this.

[VietnamJerry]

Actually, i love the way they express information to us. Even i'm seventeen, i still prefer being inform by animated film like this to listening hours to boring teacher or documental film. Though, i cant understand all of the words they said, but at least i got enough knowledge.
(If there's any grammar mistaken, please correct me. )

[QwertyRulz]

She needs to narrate more. She has a very relaxing voice that's easy to listen to.
Also, neat information! :D (I mean, I knew most of this as my field of study happens to be marine biology, but some facts I didn't know, so...neat!)

[Gourmeticainsularis]

No, your grammar and word choice is spot on. Much better than some of the native english speakers you see around youtube.

[juandiegomunozprieto]

Its the greatest animation on Ted-ed. Thanks

[thegirlwiththetortoise]

y'all i was not ready for these visuals

[SarikaGupta]

Thank you TEDEd for that quite delightful start to my morning classes :)