The researchers estimate the animal weighed between 85 and 340 tonnes, according to the study published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature. That exceeds the weight of a blue whale, previously considered the heaviest animal. It also suggests that whales evolved into gigantic animals earlier than thought.
“The finding changes the understanding of whale evolution,” said study leader Eli Amson. “Whales’ gigantic body masses were achieved 30 million years earlier than previously thought.”
Until now, the evolutionary transition to true gigantism in cetaceans – such as modern baleen whales – had been considered a relatively recent event, about 10 million years ago.
Researchers from the universities of Zurich and Bern took part in the study, which was led by the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde in Stuttgart, Germany.
The species with the name Perucetus colossus (the colossal whale from Peru) is a contender for the title of the heaviest animal of all time, according to the museum. The fossil used in the study had been discovered ten years ago in the southern desert coast of Peru. The 20-metre-long skeleton is estimated to be 39 million years old.
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