Cyber Heroes

"Sperm...sperm whale? Dentures?"

"That's what humans call them." Takata, the killer whale, explained. I don't know whether he meant "sperm whale" or "dentures."

Whales are divided into toothed whales and baleen whales. As the name suggests, toothed whales are whales with traditional conical teeth. Most of these whales are traditional predators, feeding on larger creatures.

Baleen whales are different. The teeth of baleen whales are completely degraded. Instead, there are fine baleen in the mouth. Unlike teeth made of calcium phosphate, the main component of baleen is keratin - from this perspective, the baleen of baleen whales is closer to "hair".

Baleen whales swallow seawater in large gulps and then lift their tongues to squeeze the seawater out between their mouths. As the seawater passes through the whale, the baleen traps large amounts of plankton in the seawater. From water fleas invisible to the naked eye to medium and large fish nearly one meter long, baleen whales can eat basically anything.

Sperm whales are large toothed whales whose staple food is large molluscs - such as large deep-sea squid represented by the king physalis squid and the giant lance squid. They also have excellent diving abilities. Squids in the deep sea are not very athletic and have basically no ability to resist sperm whales. The sperm whale's huge head, which takes up one-third of its body, is actually filled with oil. This huge cavity is also the organ through which they release powerful ultrasonic waves.

But in comparison, the sperm whale's lower jaw is very, very small.

It was pitifully small compared to his huge forehead.

"Ah, that's right, so Hopkins' mandibles are also artificial." The killer whale sighed: "If the size of the mouth is not artificially expanded, they will not be able to eat enough."

Typical baleen whales, such as blue whales, have a huge mouth. Even this is not enough. The blue whale also has many folds from its lower jaw to its abdomen. This allows this part of the limb to expand widely. Blue whales can swallow large amounts of seawater in one gulp and then slowly filter out the tiny organisms inside.

But the sperm whale's squid-sucking mouth is simply not capable of such a thing.

Even with an artificial jaw installed.

The solution to this problem is prosthetic transformation.

Humans use a technique similar to "ostomy" to create several incisions at the end of the mouths of sperm whales such as Hopkins. These openings bypass important blood vessels and body cavities, and there are also a large number of filters similar to whale baleen on the inside of the mouth.

As filter-feeding organisms, cartilaginous fish such as whale sharks do not need to use baleen to filter seawater. The gill rakers possessed by sharks can be slightly modified to undertake similar tasks. Whale sharks can do much the same thing as baleen whales by simply swallowing large gulps of water.

Some predatory sharks even use "gulps of water" as a means of speeding up.

These modified sperm whales can also master similar methods after some training.

These standardized giant toothed whales, under the influence of prosthetics and modifications, completely changed their feeding habits and even swam faster and more powerfully than their ancestors.

After hearing this, Xiangshan was amazed at the humans behind these whales.

These whales gained intelligence after the Infection No. 1 incident. Due to limited manpower, those who originally tried to preserve fire in the biosphere prioritized rescuing animals that were “more likely to be saved.”

At that time, the most mature baseline transformation process was the baseline transformation surgery of Homo sapiens. In other words, the closer an animal is to humans, the less difficult it is to save it.

The success rate of saving whales is much greater than that of saving sharks.

These whales only gained their current intelligence after the sharks became extinct. Even if the first generation of whales still remember the stories of their ancestors, it would be difficult for them to describe animals such as whale sharks in detail from a scientific perspective, let alone design whale-based physical modifications based on this.

The experiences and stories passed down from generation to generation by human ancestors were unconsciously processed into myths by humans in the pre-literate era. A hero who is famous in mythology and has many achievements, his heroic deeds may come from more and older mythological heroes. And the original bodies of those heroes are more forgotten ancestors.

"Perhaps Hercules' legendary feat of hunting and skinning the giant Nemean lion came from the chatter of a chief who had hunted a large lion and boasted to his descendants about the proud events in his life." A friend once told Xiang Shan Describe it this way.

If humans are like this, it goes without saying that the whales before they acquired intelligence are also like this.

While Xiang Shan was thinking, a killer whale let out a whimper. He seemed to be too hungry to stand it. Then, the sperm whale at the foot of the mountain also called twice.

The killer whale named Rinaldo turned and went under the sperm whale.

Xiangshan asked curiously: "What is this doing?"

"Eat milk." Kledich explained: "The milk of large whales is the only food source we can stably obtain. Although electrical energy has replaced most of the energy generated by breathing, the physical body still has a need for nutrients. Now There are not many big fish that dolphins can hunt in the sea..."

The protein and fat of whale groups depend entirely on the milk of these large whales.

These large whales have also been genetically modified to secrete milk regardless of whether they are raising calves. Whale milk is also very different from land animals. Whale milk has a very high fat content and cannot be dissolved in sea water for a while. And whales can ejaculate milk on their own power, rather than requiring their calves to actively suck it out like land mammals.

These large whales rely on their physical strength to travel long distances to filter and feed on plankton in different sea areas. During this era of mass extinction, the density of life in the ocean was extremely low. If you only feed in one place, it is easy to eat the local animals to extinction, so the large whales have no choice but to do this.

Sometimes, they also need to bring the growing killer whales that eat the most and need food the most.

Adult killer whales will take the initiative to undergo complete prosthetic transformation and completely get rid of hunger. However, these immature killer whales are similar to humans. Premature transformation into complete prosthetics will lead to a fierce conflict between instinct and prosthetics, leading to huge psychological problems.

Moreover, adult killer whales are too ferocious, but for young killer whales, the sperm whale transformed into a baleen whale can calm them down simply by virtue of their physical strength. It's not scary even if they lose their minds.

Xiang Shan sighed: "What did you think about...living together?"

"We are the only ones who have survived." Kledich said: "There are only single digits of large whales, and they belong to different populations. They rely on cloning technology to pass from generation to generation. They are also afraid of being alone. And we are also We can’t live without them. We have to be together.”

I watched some whale documentaries yesterday and lost track of time. Sorry everyone.