Also marine mammals, why can sea lions bask in the sun but whales cannot?

The size of the whale is too large, it is difficult to move smoothly on land, and secondly, the whale's body is rich in a lot of fat, and when exposed to the sun for a long time, the whale's body temperature will rise quickly, which will eventually lead to the death of the whale. Sea lions, on the other hand, are easy to walk on land and need to bask in the sun to maintain their body temperature.

The whale is first a terrestrial mammal and then enters the ocean to become a marine animal. Rather than "evolving into mammals".

We often see stranded whales on the Internet, their huge bodies motionless on the beach, and without human help, they will gradually die, and then after a while they will become a "whale burst".

But if we think about it, whales are more like us humans, although they also have "fish" in their names.

They are mammals like us, they breathe air, they rely on their lungs, they can't stay underwater for long periods of time, and they have to go back to the surface every once in a while to breathe.

But why can't they live on land as much as we do, even for a short period of time?

In fact, there are not many marine mammals, they are looking for food in the sea, they are often chubby, and they look a little cute, but some of them can live on the shore for a long time, and even bask in the sun.

For example, sea lions and seals, which are stupid and indistinguishable, will come to the beach to bask in the sun, and even they breed on the beach.

Why can't whales? It all starts with their evolution!

Ancestor of marine mammals.

In fact, the sum up is that whales have lived in the ocean for too long, and they have adapted more to the environment of the ocean than to the land!

Life originated in the ocean, and then the first animals climbed ashore with the ebb and flow of the ocean and gradually spread on land.

Marine mammals, however, evolved from land mammals, which means that they came out of the water and back into the water.

If you look at the animal world regularly, you will notice that marine mammals are not just sea lions and seals that are strikingly similar, but most marine mammals are strikingly similar.

For example, most of them have a curved dorsal and ventral, fin-like tail, and all lose their hair and shine, and the outer auricle falls off, etc.; Then they have a layer of subcutaneous fat around their bodies, which is how they maintain their temperature in the marine environment and is the reason why they always look round and bulging.

However, this is not because they come from a common ancestor, but because of convergent evolution, different species have evolved similar body structures in the process of adapting to the marine environment.

Although they use their lungs to breathe air, because their weight is so large, their weight drops more than their vital organs, whereas in the ocean they don't have to worry about this, because the buoyancy of the sea water removes the pressure very well.

This is one of the reasons why marine animals can grow to such a large size, while land animals cannot.

In addition, because they have been away from land for so long, their limbs are completely unable to move around the shore like sea lions. A stranded dolphin (the small one) can only "carp" on the shore instead of crawling back into the sea, while a large dolphin like a whale can only stay motionless.

Whales have lived in the ocean for too long, and they have adapted more to the environment of the ocean than to the land! And their ancestors are not the same, whales belong to the cetacean class, and seals belong to the pinniped class.