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This is
"What’s Trending Today".
Three million
years may seem like a long time. But when you consider that planet Earth is more
than 4.5 billion years old, it is a pretty short period of time. And it is over
that shorter time period that the whales in our oceans today got to be so large.
trending:
tendencia; a pretty short period: un período muy corto;
over that shorter
time period: durante ese período de tiempo más corto; got to be so large:
llegaron a ser tan grandes;
The blue whale
is the largest animal that has ever lived. They weigh more than even the biggest
dinosaurs. They can grow to 30 meters long and weigh up to 130,000 kilograms.
the largest animal:
el animal más grande; that has ever lived: que jamás haya existido;
they can grow to: puede crecer hasta; 30 meters long: 30 metros de
largo;
Blue whales
are part of the baleen whale family. Baleen is a kind of
food-filtering structure in the mouths of the whales.
The whales developed this system about 30 million years ago.
the baleen whale
family: la familia de las ballens barbadas; baleen: las barbas;
food-filtering structure: estructura que filtra los alimentos; mouths:
bocas;
Other whales
in the baleen family include fin whales, bowhead whales, and right whales. Today,
these whales can weigh well over 70,000 kilograms. But for
millions of years, they were not nearly that large, scientists say.
fin whales:
ballenas de aleta; bowhead whales: ballena de Groenlandia; right
whales: ballenas francas; well over: más de;
they were not nearly
that large: no fueron tan enormes;
“All of a
sudden – ‘boom’ – we see them get very big, like blue whales”, scientist Nick
Pyenson told the New York Times. He and other researchers recently published an
article on whale size in the British research journal Proceedings of the
Royal Society B.
all of a sudden:
de repente; get very big: crecer mucho;
“It’s like
going from whales the size of minivans to longer than
two school buses”, Pyenson added.
the size of minivans:
del tamaño minivan; longer than: más largas que; two school buses:
dos autobuses escolares;
The
researchers -- Pyenson, Jeremy Goldbogen and Graham Slater -- believe that a
change in the Earth’s climate caused whales to get so large only about 3 million
years ago. This change
led to food becoming more easily available.
researchers:
investigadores; caused whales: hizo que las ballenas; to get so large:
crecieran tanto; more easily available: más fácilmente disponible;
An oncoming
ice age made the ocean water cold. High winds mixed the water in the ocean
faster than before. Rain and snow made more nutrients run off from the land into
the water. The nutrients resulted in algae. That
attracted small fish and shrimp called krill.
oncoming ice age: la siguiente edad de hielo; run off: se escurrieran;
resulted in algae: dieron como resultado agua; shrimp called krill:
camarones llamados krill;
The mixture of
nutrients resulted in more food for large whales to eat. Whales that
were able to quickly eat a lot of food survived. And they got larger. Whales
that had teeth instead of baleen, however, did not survive. The largest
baleen whales then produced other large whales.
that were able to
quickly eat: que pudieron comer rápidamente; survived: sobrevivieron;
whales that had teeth instead of baleen: las ballenas que tenían dientes en
lugar de barbas; did not survive: no sobrevivieron; then produced:
produjeron luego;
Over the next
three or four million years, the baleen whales grew 10 times bigger than they
had been, the researchers say.
over the next three:
durante los siguietes tres; grew 10 times: crecieron 10 veces;
It is possible
that the largest whales are gone, the researchers said. But, as they told the
BBC, blue whales could grow even bigger -- or they could slowly die – depending
on Earth’s changing climate.
as they told the BBC:
como ellos le dijeron a la BBC; could grow even bigger: podrían crecer
aún más; they could slowly die: podrán morir lentamente; depending on
Earth's changing climate: dependiendo del clima cambiante de la Tierra.
And that’s "What’s Trending Today".
I’m Dan Friedell. |
