Giant whale-eating whale discovered

Giant whale-eating whale discovered

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The massive skull and jaw of a 13-million-year-old sperm whale has been discovered eroding from the windblown sands of a coastal desert of Peru.

The extinct cousin of the modern sperm whale is the first fossil to rival modern sperm whales in size — although this is a very different beast, say whale evolution experts.

"We could see it from very far," said paleontologist Olivier Lambert of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France, who led the team which found the fossil.

The giant 3-meter (10-foot) skull of what's been dubbed Leviathan melvillei (in honor of the

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This skull was only 13 million years old, imagine how long it lived till, it may have lived a few more million years after that. Just because the skull was from 13 mya doesn't mean that it was the last one, and we found the last one. There may be dozens of more skeletons of strange creatures lying await in discovery

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Interesting, although I thought it was a new find, I mean a living animal. Haha.

I wonder why during the "dinosaur ages" a great deal of the animals were so giant in size. It's like evolution tried that, and found it didn't work too well, then decided to downsize everything. The largest animals nowadays, the giraffes, whales, and elephants, would be dwarfed by any of these creatures.

I thought it was an alive on too when i first read it haha. I'm pretty sure the whales had an advanced civilization and then invented whaleburgers and became obese and died of heart disease or developed weapons and killed themselves off. I do not believe it was an asteroid. I thin the whales set off the mother of all nukes and killed themselves.

reply to post by Praxilla
One of the reasons why things were bigger back then was because for example, during the Carboniferous period oxygen levels were 35% compared to today's 21% and the Carbon Dioxide amount was three times Pre-industrial age levels.

Insects were immense monsters during this age.

Its funny because I was looking at this article earlier on and was thinking should I post it?? Naaaa

lol and here I am now seeing it. Good job

You TubeHere is a video about the discovery.



Pretty neat

[edit on 30-6-2010 by Xeven]

[edit on 30-6-2010 by Xeven]

reply to post by Praxilla


i believe this:

reply to post by billybob


Well not exactly on topic but of course the earth is growing. If space is expanding so would the space in between quarks or atoms etc...So earth has grown and so has those millions of year old bones

Originally posted by Praxilla
Interesting, although I thought it was a new find, I mean a living animal. Haha.

I wonder why during the "dinosaur ages" a great deal of the animals were so giant in size. It's like evolution tried that, and found it didn't work too well, then decided to downsize everything. The largest animals nowadays, the giraffes, whales, and elephants, would be dwarfed by any of these creatures.

Actually the blue whale today would pretty much dwarf any known dinosaur or any known creature that has been on Earth for that matter. Suffice it to say I'm willing to bet however that there were at one time even larger animals in the ocean, but we just have not discovered them yet or may never.

Size comparison of blue whale

Originally posted by billybob
reply to post by Praxilla

 

i believe this:

Yes, I love that theory, too. He does a good job of explaining why everything was so large back then.

i see next roger corman movie leviathan superwhale followed by
leviathan vs megladon verse dinoshark vs dinovroc vs megapiranhna

reply to post by proteus33


you forgot to mention anaconda vs tarantula vs yeti vs vs killer bees vs giant octopus while they all save earth form tornado, asteroid, nuclear, magnetic, acid rain problem sci-fi channel blockbuster.

reply to post by star in a jar


Thank you so much!!! That makes complete sense to me now! And, you saved me from asking a "five year old's" question next time I go to the natural history museum!

reply to post by nikiano


That's a very cool theory. I'm going to have to research that some more! Plus, the guy's voice is a natural tranquilizer, so I'm going to check it out again.

Originally posted by Praxilla
Interesting, although I thought it was a new find, I mean a living animal. Haha.

I wonder why during the "dinosaur ages" a great deal of the animals were so giant in size. It's like evolution tried that, and found it didn't work too well, then decided to downsize everything. The largest animals nowadays, the giraffes, whales, and elephants, would be dwarfed by any of these creatures.

Size tends to be based on resources.

We see Pygmificqtion when there are little resources...

And of course the inverse is true ... Add in long periods of times and you see small lizards evolve into large dinosaurs when there is lots of resources, and then when resources dry up, they evolve into smaller creatures... Birds etc

reply to post by THE_PROFESSIONAL


Probably died out with every other dinosaur-sized mammal about 200 to 50 thousand years ago.

It's so sad. Mammals got as big and advanced as dinos back then, and we had to go and kill of half of them while nature and the ice age killed off the rest of them.

sadface.

thats awsome. and you know there was something that ate this giant creature. one tooth is like the size of a motorcyle. this planets past is effin amazing!!!!!

wow.....no xtian claiming this to be their levithian from the bible yet........

the sea is amazing, megaloodon is by far the scariest.