Is there any way or reason why orcas didn't exterminate them first?

>>5007641 (OP)
back then orcas werent as smart or bloodthirsty as they are today ig

They probably lived in ice cold waters that Orcas rarely went to

Being big doesn't mean you're defenseless. Quite the opposite infact, one good tail swipe from these guys could probably break an Orca's bones, all the while their thick tree-like skin protected them to a great degree. They weighed doubled what an Orca did and primarily lived in shallower kelp-infested waters than Orcas were used to swimming in, not to mention the fact that they were known to live in groups and fiercely defended each other as was the case when a hunting boat was repeatedly rammed after attempting to kill a female.

>>5007643
This probably it, specific Orca ecotypes have to develop to hunt specific prey items. There was probably no Orca in the world that would've wanted to bother with trying to scarf down tree trunk texture sea beef. Especially when seals and fish were already present as food sources.

>>5007641 (OP)
>At that time, it was found only around the Commander Islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia; its range extended across the North Pacific during the Pleistocene epoch, and likely contracted to such an extreme degree due to the glacial cycle.
They were just the very last ones.

Isolation. And not all orcas prefer such large prey as op's moma.

>>5007641 (OP)
Orcas don't need to eat them, they just milk them and make sea cheese.

>>5007851
does the fin down mean it's sad?

>>5008761

>>5008761
I am sure the thing is indeed sad but if i remember correctly, the fin collapses because its muscles become atrophied from lack of use

>>5008838
This.