2023-08-07 06:00:05
39 million years ago, a behemoth of the seas, the whale Perucetus colossus, weighed more than twice as much as a blue whale. It is probably the heaviest animal the Earth has ever known.
An artistic interpretation of the Perucetus colossus in its marine habitat.
Credit: Alberto Gennari
Belonging to the basilosaurid family, now extinct, this giant cetacean exceeded the blue whale in weight (The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), also called blue whale, is a mammal…), weighing between 85 and 340 tons. Its size was estimated at 20 meters in length (The length of an object is the distance between its two extremities…). A recent study published in the journal Nature, reveals more about it. 30 years ago, paleontologists discovered part of his skeleton in the province of Ica, in southern Peru. They have since exhumed 13 vertebrae, four ribs and a hip bone. Eli Amson, paleontologist and curator at the Museum of Natural History (The process of observation and systematic description of nature begins as early as…) in Stuttgart, Germany, talks about the challenge of extracting fossils, particularly in because of their weight.
With only a few bones to study, the researchers had to estimate the true size of P. colossus. These bones were very dense, suggesting that a significant portion of his body mass was made up of bone. The team believes that the whale’s soft tissue was probably lighter than its bones, which would have helped it float.
One of the vertebrae transported from its point of origin in the province of Ica in Peru.
Credit: Giovanni Bianucci
According to the team, the appearance of P. colossus was quite unusual. The cetacean could look like a modern manatee, but with a small head, a gigantic body and small arms and legs. This strange appearance would have allowed him to move slowly through the water, like manatees.
This discovery challenges what we thought we knew about cetacean evolution, suggesting that they reached their maximum size 30 million years earlier than previously thought. Jeremy Goldbogen, associate professor at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station, not affiliated with this study, suggests that the importance lies in understanding the evolution of cetaceans and the reasons for their gigantism (Gigantism (from the Greek gigas , gigantos “giant”) is a state…).
The sample of P. colossus is currently on display at the Museum of Natural History in Lima (Lima is the capital and largest city of Peru (2005: 8,393,728 inhabitants). It is…).
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