It's been suggested that spitting cobras evolved as a response to bipedal hominins, as their ability to spray venom up to 3 m allowed them to neutralize a new enemy that could attack at the distance with stick and stones. Spitting cobras appear in the fossil record at about the same time as hominins
A drawing of the 21m Mocha Dick (which Moby Dick is based on) attacking whalling boats. The whale that might have contributed to the survival of its own species. It destroyed over 20 whalling boats. It was ultimately killed in 1838, after trying to save a female whale whose calf had just been slain.
