Whales

Strong evidence indicates that whales and other cetaceans (dolphins and porpoises) are descended from land mammals. This is due to their vestigial hind limbs and anatomical similarities with fossils of certain prehistoric land mammals. These land mammals began spending more time in the water until they adapted to the marine environment and became the cetaceans.

One of the earliest ancestors of cetaceans is Pakicetus. He was a wolf-sized mammal that spent most of his time on land. His fossils were found in Pakistan. He appeared shortly after the death of the dinosaurs around 50 million years ago. At the time the region was hot and dry and there was a scarcity of land animals to hunt. Pakicetus found an abundance of food in the sea, and few predators, because many of the predators that once ruled the seas went extinct at the end of the Mesozoic Era. This would be the start of the evolution of whales.

A few million years later Ambulocetus appears in the fossil record. Its name means "walking whale," because Ambulocetus already showed characteristics of cetaceans. He is believed to have been an ambush predator (much like today's crocodiles) and was well adapted for swimming, moving his tail and hind legs in a vertical motion as modern whales do. His hind legs were elongated, his tail was flatter, and his body was more streamlined. He probably waddled awkwardly on land, much like a seal.

The ancestors of whales, such as Ambulocetus, would become further adapted to living in the ocean. Their tails changed shape to further improve their swimming, eventually developing flukes, and their legs shrank to become fins. An example of further adaptation to the water is Rodhocetus, who appears a few million years later. By his fossils he must have been a good swimmer but would have been handicapped on land due to his shrunken pelvis and hind limbs. Both Dorudon and Basilosauruswere the first true whales, and had vestigial hind limbs that were no longer used for swimming. Eventually these disappeared altogether. Even today, we can still observe tiny vestiges of hind limbs in the skeletons of modern whales.

Modern whales evolved only within the span of 10-15 million years. To some people this seems incredibly fast. But remember that adapting to life at sea does not require the evolution of brand-new features, only the modification of old ones.

Why did mammals return to the ocean in the first place? The most likely explanation is that the extinction of the marine reptiles that used to rule the seas left an open niche which marine mammals could easily occupy. There was plenty of food in the ocean, and it would take only a few modifications to reach it.

On average about 20 whales are killed every day, depending on the season.

Eleven countries hunt whales. Most (not Japan or Norway) only allow hunting by native populations. Here are the average numbers of whales killed each year:

• Canada: 1 bowhead whale every two years from Hudson Bay. 1 bowhead whale every 13 years from Baffin Bay.
• Faroe Islands: 950 pilot whales (actually a species of dolphin) a year.
• Greenland: 175 whales a year.
• Iceland: 30 minke whales and 9 fin whales a year.
• Indonesia: Two small islands in Indonesia hunt whales with traditional harpoons thrown from small open boats. Between 10 and 20 whales a year.
• Japan: The quota for 2009-2010 was 935 minke, 50 fin and 50 humpback whales, but the Japanese fishing fleet returned home with less than half their catch after opposition and disruption from anti-whaling ships. About 20,000 dolphins and small whales are killed each year by coastal fishers. in 2009 about 150 large whales were accidentally caught in fishing nets used for coastal fish.
• Norway: The quota for 2011 was 1286 minke whales.
• Russia: The native people in the Chukotka region kill 140 grey whales a year.
• St Vincent the The Grenadines: 4 humpback whales a year using traditional boats and harpoons.
• United States: Indigenous communities in Alaska kill 50 bowhead whales a year.

That's about 7400 whales a year, (not counting the coastal dolphins of Japan) or about 20 a day.

ambergris

Ans) Whale Blubber is a well known ingredient in lipsticks and Ambergris is known to be used to enhance and lengthen the life of expensive perfumes.

No other animal has ever existed that is bigger than the blue whale. It is by far the largest animal ever known to exist.

The largest known animal ever to have existed is the blue whale, an endangered species whose official record length is 33.58 m (110 ft 2 in), and weight 190 metric tons (210 short tons) (for a pregnant female).[9] The largest living land animals by mass are male (bull) African Bush Elephants (Savannah Elephants or Bush Elephants); one known example weighed roughly 12 t (13 short tons). Some extinct land animals, including many dinosaurs, were much larger still. A 1985 study concluded that the theoretical limit for land-dwelling animals based on known types of body plans was between 100 and 1000 metric tons.[10] The organism sizes listed are frequently considered "outsized" and are not in the normal (average) size range for the respective species.

However, if you want to compare all living things, such as plants, plants win hands down.....

The aspen tree (Populus tremuloides) forms large stands of genetically identical trees (technically, stems) connected by a single underground root system. These trees form through root sprouts coming off an original parent tree, though the root system may not remain a single unit in all specimens. The largest known fully connected aspen is a grove in Utah nicknamed Pando, and some experts call it the largest organism in the world,[1] by mass or volume.[2] It covers 0.43 km2 (106 acres) and is estimated to weigh 6,000 metric tons (6,600 short tons).[3]

A giant Armillaria solidipes fungus, a species of honey mushroom in the Malheur National Forest in Oregon, was found to span 8.9 km2 (2,200 acres),[4] which would make it the largest organism by area. Whether or not this is an individual organism is disputed: some tests have indicated that they have the same genetic makeup,[5] but unless its mycelia are fully connected, it is a clonal colony of numerous smaller individuals. Another clonal colony that rivals the Armillaria and the Populuscolonies in size is a strand of the giant marine plant, Posidonia oceanica, discovered in the Mediterranean near the Balearic Islands. It covers a band roughly 8 km (5.0 mi) in length.[6]

The world's largest single stem tree, by volume, is the General Sherman tree, a Giant Sequoia with a volume of 1,487 m3 (52,500 cu ft).[7] This tree stands 83.8 m (275 ft) tall and the trunk alone is estimated to weigh over 1,800 t (2,000 short tons). The largest single-stem tree ever measured was the Lindsey creek tree, a Coast Redwood with a minimum trunk volume of over 2,500 m3 (88,000 cu ft) and a mass of over 3,300 metric tons (3,600 short tons). It fell over during a storm in 1905.[8]

Also, some people like to argue that the Great Barrier Reef is the largest living thing. Though, this is not actually true. The Great Barrier Reef is actually a series of individual reefs that are connected forming the Great Barrier Reef (Much like a forest.). So, in such a case then you could say that The Taiga Forest is actually the largest living thing...... Here are some interesting facts:

Taiga (pronounced /ˈtaɪɡə/; Russian: тайга; IPA: [taɪɡˈa]; from Turkic[1] or Mongolian), also known as the boreal forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests.

Taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States and is known as the Northwoods.[2] It also covers most of Sweden, Finland, much of Norway, much of Russia (especially Siberia), northern Kazakhstan, northern Mongolia, and northern Japan (on the island of Hokkaidō).

The term "boreal forest" is sometimes, particularly in Canada, used to refer to the more southerly part of the biome, while the term taiga is often used to describe the more barren areas of the northernmost part of the taiga approaching the tree line.

(Above: The Taiga Forest)

Also if you REALLY REALLY want to continue making these type of arguments. Then Earth would be the correct answer for the largest living thing. OR.... The Sun........ The Solar System......... The Galaxy......................... The Universe.................................................................... The Outer Dimensions (According to Steven Hawkings) ...........................................................................................................

OR if you really want to push it, GOD or GODS (Which ever you prefer.) :)

When the whales hit the surface, in scenarios like getting air, they will get oil all over them. They also might get some of it in the "mouth" and down the "blow-hole".

Spills make marine environments unlivable for marine mammals and indeed for all marine life forms with their injection of dangerous, non-edible oils into waters and nearby land. Specifically, they destroy possibilities for health, habitat and food sources. Predators and prey are left homeless. They also are left jobless, because the food supply drops or becomes non-existent. Additionally, they're left maimed, moribund or just plain unhealthy. Oils coat bodies and keep vital respiratory and ambulatory body parts from working.

characteristics of a mammal:

warm-blooded higher vertebrates

suckle their young with milk secreted by mammary glands

have skin with hair

four chambered heart