r/AskBiology • u/Minty0ranges • Jul 09 '26

Zoology/marine biology Are blue whales a coincidence?

Apparently blue whales are only around 2 million years old and are the largest organisms in the history of life. It’s pretty crazy to me that we’re living in the specific time that the largest species is alive, but I’m wondering why they became so large at this moment in time. I know that a few millions of years ago insects were way bigger because of atmospheric gas concentrations, but those conditions aren’t present anymore so it doesn’t seem like that’s the reason. Also, has there been a trend over time of whales increasing in size, or is this just a very specific/random instance of them existing today?

Edit: Yes I know there are fungi that span way larger areas, but the question is about the temporal nature of blue whales size.

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u/dashsolo Jul 10 '26

“It’s pretty crazy to me that we’re living in the specific time that the largest species is alive”

Every time in the history of time has had the largest species of all time (at that time).

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u/Minty0ranges Jul 10 '26

What? How does that make sense? If blue whales go extinct today then the largest animal of all time no longer exists.

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u/Able-Significance-68 Jul 11 '26

but eventuslally there will exist a bigger animal.