January 19th, 2013
pejmanyousefzadeh
Zoom jtotheizzoe: There Are Whales Alive Today That Are Older Than Moby Dick! Eskimo hunters, whaling off the coast of Alaska, discovered 19th century stone and metal harpoon tips embedded in the blubber of bowhead whales. That means these relatives of humpbacks and other baleen whales were dodging harpoons as far back as the 1870’s! Of course, Herman Melville published Moby Dick in 1851, so dating harpoons just means they were born sometime before 1879. Biologist Craig George decided to use a technique that measures certain protein chemistry in the whales eyes (basically as whales age, their eyes accumulate certain amino acids) to date them more accurately.  The result? There are likely bowhead whales out there that are more than 200 years old! That makes them older than any known tortoise, and perhaps the oldest animal on Earth! Check out more at Smithsonian. They still don’t have anything on trees when it comes to age, though. From Hell’s heart, I issue an American Association of Retired Whales card for thee.

jtotheizzoe:

There Are Whales Alive Today That Are Older Than Moby Dick!

Eskimo hunters, whaling off the coast of Alaska, discovered 19th century stone and metal harpoon tips embedded in the blubber of bowhead whales. That means these relatives of humpbacks and other baleen whales were dodging harpoons as far back as the 1870’s!

Of course, Herman Melville published Moby Dick in 1851, so dating harpoons just means they were born sometime before 1879. Biologist Craig George decided to use a technique that measures certain protein chemistry in the whales eyes (basically as whales age, their eyes accumulate certain amino acids) to date them more accurately. 

The result? There are likely bowhead whales out there that are more than 200 years old! That makes them older than any known tortoise, and perhaps the oldest animal on Earth! Check out more at Smithsonian.

They still don’t have anything on trees when it comes to age, though.

From Hell’s heart, I issue an American Association of Retired Whales card for thee.

Reblogged from It's Okay To Be Smart
1,704 notes·
Whales Nature Science
  1. flannelfuckingfriday reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  2. cmhumphreys reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  3. michaelvandenberg reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  4. loysanloy reblogged this from laur-alien
  5. bexelated reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  6. stephanieandthesidekicks reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  7. gano-epico reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  8. kushnuggetsthesizeofcoconuts reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  9. bellatrixs-evilcorner reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  10. galaxyofgrace reblogged this from breakingmyfall
  11. progenyofworms reblogged this from pantsareforassholes
  12. breakingmyfall reblogged this from pantsareforassholes
  13. pantsareforassholes reblogged this from think-free and added:
    Or, “Why I am not at all content with dying.” I want your secrets, whale.
  14. think-free reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  15. jjoyceization reblogged this from clairebearology
  16. saltatus reblogged this from teremisuuu
  17. dahliadaisie reblogged this from staccatolyric
  18. heyyitsjayy reblogged this from ihatedoorsbutnotmusic
  19. ihatedoorsbutnotmusic reblogged this from disenchanted-hypernova
  20. disenchanted-hypernova reblogged this from itscandidlycara
  21. thegreatbigsomewhere reblogged this from sagansense
  22. wassup-holmes reblogged this from sirarthurconandoilies
  23. ifsilencefell reblogged this from sagansense
  24. carringt0n reblogged this from eurudike
  25. surelyyouwillnotdie reblogged this from whiskey-mama and added:
    This is amazing. It is one more proof that death is not natural. The whole world is cursed by death because of the sin...
  26. kilfeatha reblogged this from whiskey-mama
  27. evelyneden reblogged this from xxziggystardust
  28. whiskey-mama reblogged this from xxziggystardust

Likes

Your source for a certain percentage of things related to Pejman Yousefzadeh.

Networks

Following