Why Whales Don’t Choke

aristarchus writes:

Original source is paywalled: The New York Times. Text extracted from https://www.sciencenews.org/article/fin-whale-eat-choke-baleen-oral-plug-muscle-fat.

Scientists have discovered a new anatomical structure that allows lunge-feeding whales to take in massive amounts of water without choking.

To capture prey, humpbacks, minkes and other whales use a tactic called lunge feeding. They accelerate - their mouths open to nearly 90 degrees - and engulf a volume of water large enough to fill their entire bodies. "It's crazy. Imagine putting an entire human inside your mouth," said Kelsey Gil, a zoologist studying whale physiology at the University of British Columbia.

As water floods into the whale's mouth, its throat pouch expands, leaving the whale looking like a bloated tadpole. After about a minute, the throat pouch deflates as most of the water leaves the whale's mouth, released back into the ocean. Small fish and krill are captured in the whale's baleen - plates of keratin that hang from the top of the whale's mouth resembling bristles on a toothbrush - and are swallowed into the whale's stomach.

Scientists didn't know how these whales avoided choking on prey-filled water and flooding their respiratory tracts during a lunge feeding event. Now Dr. Gil and colleagues have discovered a large, bulbous structure that they've termed the "oral plug" - a structure never before described in any other animal - that they think makes lunge feeding possible.

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.