#balaenoptera sibbaldina

[bluewhaleking]

History of the Blue Whale King, Part V: 13,650,000 - 5,000,000 BC

And thus the genus Balaenoptera was born. Though its members started small, the expanding throat pouch allowed for larger body sizes, and the whales of Balaenoptera surpassed 30 feet. Within a few million years, some reached 40.

Unfortunately, this was the new limit. Despite the Antarctic Circumpolar Current having existed since ~34,000,000 BC, there was just not enough food for filter feeders to reach the giant sizes they dreamed of.

Meanwhile, all the whales lived in fear of predators. Most were raptorial Sperm Whales, such as Acrophyseter and Zygophyseter. But worst of all were the giant macroraptorial Sperm Whale Livyatan Melvillei, and the giant shark Carcharocles Megalodon. Both reached lengths of 50 feet, with some reaching 60 or even 70, far larger than any baleen whale.

Unfortunately, some of the Balaenoptera whales lost faith in the King and Queen. In around 10,00,000 BC, a group split off the main lineage, and another splitoff occured in 7,500,000 BC. The first splitters became the ancestors of today's Humpback, Gray, Minke, and Fin Whales, while the other group led to the ancestors of Sei, Bryde's, and Omura's Whales.

But no matter. There were already seperate lineages of Cetaceans beyond the King and Queen's authority. They did not force anyone to follow them. Though it was unfortunate that lineages which murdered their fellow Cetaceans achieved the largest size.

But in 5,331,000 BC, the Miocene rolled over to the Pliocene, and with the new epoch, the Balaenoptera King found an opportunity. Wind-driven upwellings brought cold water and nutrients from the deep to the surface, causing massive plankton blooms. A far greater food supply meant the possibility of far greater body sizes. The King's dream, now over 60 million years old, was finally within sight.

Thus it was that he called a conference at the beginning of the Pliocene. He told his people, "This new supply of plankton is far beyond anything we've seen. We have the biology to exploit it. All we need to do now is gorge ourselves and pass on our biggest genes, and we will reach a far greater size than not only our current selves, but Megalodon and Livyatan. And we will gain more size in the next two million years than in the past 45 million combined."

Those still under his command rejoiced. Parliment voted unanimously, with support from the people, to deliver an ultimatum to the predators:

"Stop hunting us, or be destroyed."

Livyatan, the other raptorial Sperm Whales, and Megalodon laughed. In fact, the Megalodon King and Livyatan Emperor decided to have a contest to see who could eat the most whales. This contest sooned turned bloody, and thus began the Megalodon VS Livyatan War.

While the giant sharks and Sperm Whales fought each other, the Balaenoptera King's species (the one they were at this time has not yet been named by humans) grew larger at an unprecedented rate. Within 331,000 years, they grew from an average length of 30-35 feet to 50-60 feet. The other baleen species grew as well, though not by as much.

By 5,000,000 BC, it was too much for Lyviatan Melvillei to handle. They did not have enough success hunting larger prey, and combined with casualties from their war with Megalodon, the species went extinct. That was the end of the raptorial Sperm Whales, the others had already gone extinct a few million years prior.

The largest Baleen Whale species, the one under the command of the King and Queen, was Balaenoptera Sibbaldina. That time period marked the transition from tens millions of years of being small, to becoming the largest animals to ever live on Earth.