How do whales manage to sing underwater? Scientists have uncovered this mystery (video).

When the land ancestors of whales transitioned to life in the ocean around 50 million years ago, they developed various methods to adapt to their new aquatic environment. Today, whales are renowned for their musical abilities, but how do they manage to sing songs underwater? Scientists have managed to uncover this, as reported by Science Focus.

During the course of evolution, marine giants developed nostrils on the tops of their heads, which made breathing at the water's surface easier, while their limbs eventually transformed into flippers and fins for swimming. Researchers have long established that humpback whales and other baleen whales sing underwater, but until recently, the exact mechanism behind how they produce these sounds remained a mystery.

The primary challenge in studying the musical abilities of whales is that the ocean covers more than half of the planet's surface, making it difficult to detect the animals beneath the water's depths. Nevertheless, in 2024, a groundbreaking study by scientists allowed them to examine the vocal apparatus of three baleen whales:

• humpback whale;
• fin whale;
• minke whale.

It is worth noting that all the whales were found dead on the shore; however, their bodies were well-preserved, enabling scientists to study the structure of their larynxes.

The larynx of baleen whales is a unique organ made up of long cylinders connected in a rigid U-shape that presses against a fat pad. During the study, researchers blew air into the whales' larynxes and discovered that this process caused the pad to vibrate and generate low-frequency sounds.

Now, scientists believe that whales process air through their larynxes—in simple terms, they can produce sounds without suffocating beneath the water's surface and without exhaling the vital air. The research also allowed scientists to construct a three-dimensional computer model of a whale's larynx and simulate how these sounds are controlled by muscles.

The study's results also indicated that the songs of baleen whales match the frequencies of sounds produced by shipping whales. Unfortunately, the structure of the larynx does not allow whales to modulate their pitch to avoid interference from underwater noises generated by vessels. This complicates the animals' ability to hear one another over long distances in a noisier ocean due to human presence.