Move Over Blue Whale. This ancient Peruvian whale is now the world’s heaviest animal ever
Move Over Blue Whale. This ancient Peruvian whale is now the world’s heaviest animal ever
London
With the recovery of pre-historic bones of a mammoth whale, scientists believe that it could snatch the title of the world’s heaviest animal to ever exist on earth from Blue Whale.
Named Perucetus colossus, a basilosaurid whale from the middle Eocene epoch of Peru, it is 2-3 times heavier than Blue Whale, the current holder of the heaviest animal of the world title.
Scientists estimate that the whale might have existed 39 million years ago when terrestrial animals acquired extreme weight and size, and transitioned to aquatic lifestyle.
The whale is estimated to be weighing around 375 tonnes and is roughly measured to be around 66 feet in length.
Not only the size and weight but Perucetus colossus had the highest degree of bone mass increase known to date.
A study published in the British journal, Nature states that the estimated skeletal mass of the whale exceeds that of any known mammal or aquatic vertebrate.
“The bone structure specializations of aquatic mammals are reflected in the scaling of skeletal fraction (skeletal mass versus whole-body mass) across the entire disparity of amniotes.
After using the skeletal fraction to estimate the body mass of the Perucetus colossus, it is a contender for the title of heaviest animal on record,” the study notes.
The study had been conducted by Giovanni Bianucci of Italy’s Pisa University along with Olivier Lambert, Mario Urbina, and Marco Merella among other fellow scientists.
At present, the Blue whale of the baleen whale suborder is the largest and heaviest animal to have ever lived on Earth.
Blue Whales can attain a length of up to 100 feet (30 metres) and can weigh as much as around 200 tonnes.
