Paleontologists describe a strange whale species that weighed more than twice as much as the blue whale (85 - 340 tons) and lived in the ancient seas of what is now Peru.
Reconstructed image of Perucetus colossus. Photo: Alberto Gennari
A giant ancient whale that lived 39 million years ago was a beast. It was more than twice as big as the blue whale, the heaviest animal ever to live on Earth. Researchers have named the extinct sauribasilod cetacean Perucetus colossus . Its body mass is estimated at between 85,000 and 340,000 kilograms. P. colossus was about 20 meters long, longer than a bowling alley, according to new research published on August 2 in the journal Nature .
Paleontologists discovered the massive marine mammal’s partial skeleton 30 years ago in Peru’s southern Ica province. Since then, they have unearthed 13 vertebrae, four ribs and a hip bone.
"One of my colleagues saw the exposed bones while looking for fossils in the Peruvian desert," said lead researcher Eli Amson, a paleontologist and curator of fossil mammals at the Stuttgart Natural History Museum in Germany. "Excavating the fossil took a long time because of its size. Each vertebra weighed up to 150 kg."
The team could only estimate how large P. colossus was based on the limited number of bones they unearthed, as most of the animal had decomposed over time, including all its soft tissue. However, the bones they collected were very dense, meaning they were very heavy. To support such a heavy skeleton, the team thinks the whale’s soft tissue was likely lighter than its bones, helping it float.
As a result, P. colossus certainly had a very strange appearance. The team describes it as resembling a modern manatee, with a very small head, a huge body, and tiny arms and legs. According to Amson, in terms of weight, P. colossus was clearly larger than the blue whale. Its body length was shorter than the blue whale's. However, it is difficult to estimate exactly how much fat and soft tissue covered its skeleton.
The odd shape may have helped P. colossus maintain buoyancy and allow it to glide through the water, much like a manatee. P. colossus not only disrupts perceptions of what the heaviest animal on the planet looked like, it also challenges what researchers know about cetacean evolution. The finding means they reached their peak body mass 30 million years earlier than previously thought.
"P. colossus was certainly slow-moving and dived in shallow water. We don't know what it ate because its head and teeth are missing. Our guess is that it spent most of its time on the seafloor and didn't burn much energy searching for food sources," Amson said.
An Khang (According to Live Science )
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