What would happen if they genetically engineered a blue whale to have legs so it could live up on the land like a bigger elephant?

yimi

Giving a blue whale legs would not be sufficient. The Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is far too heavy to be able to live on land. A lot of other significant changes would be required for it to develop into a terrestrial animal.

Anonymous

They are too heavy to be supported by legs. The biggest dinosaurs that ever lived are much smaller than blue whales because there is a limit on how much weight the leg bones can support on land. Water is buoyant and therefore an animal may not even need bones to support their bodies in water. The giant squid for example does not even need bones. Further, the blue whale would overheat quickly if it is on land. It has too small a surface area to volume ratio, and it will have a lot of trouble losing body heat to the environment as a result since heat exchange rate is proportional to body area. Besides land temperatures are often much higher than water temperature, so the blue whale would need to live near the polar regions to stay cool enough to survive.

Beast

I'd steer clear of its tail

JimZ

As something gets bigger, its muscle strength as determined by its cross sectional area through the muscle, increases in two dimensions but its weight increases in 3 dimensions. If a whale remains in the same proportion but doubles in length, it will be 8 times as heavy but only 4 times as strong. This is why a whale is too weak to carry itself on land and it is also why an ant, much less efficient muscles than us, is many times as strong per pound.

Anonymous

It would DIE. 1. There is not enough Planton on dry land or any other edible substance that would be available for it to eat. 2. Its massive weight would have to have impossible legs to prevent them being crushed. 3. It would need to intake massive amounts of water, to sweat, to keep its skin damp. 4. Its mouth would have to be reformed to be a "bottom feeder".

MARK

Giving a blue whale legs would not be sufficient. The Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is far too heavy to be able to live on land. A lot of other significant changes would be required for it to develop into a terrestrial animal.

L.N.

It would starve to death.

Ray

Blue whales don't have a spine built to support that weight, what's left of their hip bone isn't even connected to the spine and if it were; again, it would not be able to support the weight. Their shoulder is also not built to support the weight if they had 4 limbs! Whales also have mammal bones, which are like reptile bones; full of marrow, and not built to support a lot of weight. Saurischian bones are stronger then mammals, and the largest sauropods ever got to be maybe half the mass of a big blue whale.

STEPHEN

It would suffocate under its own weight.

y

It would suffocate, it's mass is too great for it to be able to support itself. It would crush itself

Robert

It would dry out and melt. They don't like the hot mid day sun

busterwasmycat

I suspect it would do poorly because it would not be prepared to eat what it would find on land, and you just removed its ability to swim well.

paul

get a life

The 90 Year Old: Homeless, Unemployed, Virgin

It would lose weight very fast until it became a giant Greyhound

audrey

Wow! Wouldn't that be cool!!!