{"id":131373,"date":"2024-11-29T10:27:53","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T03:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=131373"},"modified":"2024-11-29T10:27:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T03:27:53","slug":"in-2007-a-100-year-old-harpoon-was-found-inside-the-worlds-longest-living-mammal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=131373","title":{"rendered":"In 2007, A 100-Year-Old Harpoon Was Found Inside The World\u2019s Longest-Living Mammal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"isPasted\">In 2007, Inuit whalers in Alaska made a surprising discovery. In the carcass of a whale, they found fragments of a weapon embedded in its flesh \u2013 but this wasn\u2019t a modern piece of equipment. The harpoon was traced back to the 1900s, and after investigation, scientists estimated that the whale itself was around 115 years old, if not older.<\/p>\n<p>Bowhead whales (<em>Balaena mysticetus<\/em>) were severely affected by the introduction of widespread commercial whaling that saw their numbers plummet to fewer than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fisheries.noaa.gov\/species\/bowhead-whale\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">3,000 members<\/a>. It was effectively ended by 1921, a move that has seen the population grow to between 10,000 to 23,000 individuals.<\/p>\n<p>The whaling ban doesn\u2019t apply to <a href=\"https:\/\/iwc.int\/management-and-conservation\/whaling\/aboriginal\/usa\/alaska\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">subsistence hunts<\/a> led by Indigenous Peoples along the western and northern coasts of Alaska, where bowhead whales have been a vital food source for millennia. It was during one of these subsistence hunts that an unusual discovery was made inside the body of a bowhead caught by Inuit whalers. According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/06\/13\/world\/americas\/13iht-whale.1.6123654.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New York Times<\/a>, a biologist spotted the fragments as the whale was being carved up and sent it to a historian at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, John Bockstoce.<\/p>\n<p>The harpoon was an exploding lance, a popular choice in New Bedford when it was the whaling capital of the world back in the late 1800s. The patented device enabled Bockstoce and colleagues to narrow down its deployment to sometime between 1885 and 1895, putting the whale at around 115 years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It was an unusual contribution to the growing body of evidence that bowhead whales, as well as being among <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/how-the-largest-whales-got-so-big-may-be-explained-by-four-genes-67162\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the largest whales<\/a>, exhibit exceptional longevity, possibly extending to over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/the-longest-living-animal-on-earth-can-live-for-over-2000-years-70210\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">200 years<\/a> \u2013 making it the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/genome-earths-longest-lived-mammal-sequenced-26773\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">longest-living mammal<\/a> on the planet.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fr-image-container no-background\" data-asset-id=\"80545\" data-reactroot=\"\">\n<div class=\"fr-image\"><picture title=\"\"><source media=\"(min-width: 1000px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets.iflscience.com\/assets\/articleNo\/76999\/iImg\/80545\/bowhead-whale-l.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source media=\"(min-width: 1000px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets.iflscience.com\/assets\/articleNo\/76999\/iImg\/80545\/bowhead-whale-l.png\" type=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/image\/png\"><source media=\"(min-width: 568px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets.iflscience.com\/assets\/articleNo\/76999\/iImg\/80545\/bowhead-whale-m.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source media=\"(min-width: 568px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets.iflscience.com\/assets\/articleNo\/76999\/iImg\/80545\/bowhead-whale-m.png\" type=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/image\/png\"><source media=\"(max-width: 567px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets.iflscience.com\/assets\/articleNo\/76999\/iImg\/80545\/bowhead-whale-s.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source media=\"(max-width: 567px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets.iflscience.com\/assets\/articleNo\/76999\/iImg\/80545\/bowhead-whale-s.png\" type=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/image\/png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"inline-image fr-fic fr-dib\" data-asset-id=\"80545\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.iflscience.com\/assets\/articleNo\/76999\/iImg\/80545\/bowhead whale age.png\" alt=\"A bowhead whale and her calf in the Arctic Ocean.\" title=\"A bowhead whale and her calf in the Arctic Ocean.\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div><figcaption class=\"fr-figcaption\">\n<p>A bowhead whale and its calf in the Arctic Ocean.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<h2>How do you age a whale?<\/h2>\n<p>When you\u2019re short on 1900s-era exploding lances, another way to age a whale is to look into their eyes. Here, you find the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/how-the-atomic-bomb-taught-us-that-greenland-sharks-live-to-400-years-old-70208\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">eye lens<\/a> that contains aspartate, which can come in left- and right-handed variants. How that aspartate changes over time can reveal the age of an animal, as Dr Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston explained in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguin.co.uk\/books\/456834\/the-future-loves-you-by-zeleznikow-johnston-ariel\/9780241655894\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Future Loves You: How And Why We Should Abolish Death<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cA baby bowhead whale starts with 100 percent left-handed aspartate in their eyes, but over time this will tend to an equilibrium of 50:50 left:right molecules. In a process similar to radiocarbon dating, examining the exact ration of left- to right-handed aspartate present in the lens can identify the age of an animal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Zeleznikow-Johnston makes a case for in the book, sometimes long life can come at a cost, and for the bowhead whale, that includes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/with-long-life-comes-tiny-testicles-for-bowhead-whales-65496\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tiny testicles<\/a>. The genetic quirk gives the whales&#8217; cells time to heal before they duplicate, but it may have a negative impact on fertility.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019d like to hear more about Zeleznikow-Johnston\u2019s work, you can catch an excerpt of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguin.co.uk\/books\/456834\/the-future-loves-you-by-zeleznikow-johnston-ariel\/9780241655894\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>The Future Loves You<\/em><\/a> in our December issue of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/curious-magazine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CURIOUS<\/a>, IFLScience\u2019s e-magazine, out Sunday, December 1. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/subscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sign up to our newsletter<\/a> to get it delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/in-2007-a-100-year-old-harpoon-was-found-inside-the-worlds-longest-living-mammal-76999\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2007, Inuit whalers in Alaska made a surprising discovery. In the carcass of a whale, they found fragments of a weapon embedded in its flesh \u2013 but this wasn\u2019t &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=131373\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8628],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=131373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=131373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=131373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=131373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}