MEET THE HEAVIEST ANIMAL THAT EVER LIVED
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11 March 2024
For decades, we have known the blue whale as the largest and heaviest animal of all. It's 100 feet in length and weighs more than 200 tons
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But the mammal has been dethroned by a recently discovered cetacean that was shorter but possibly even heavier
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Named Perucetus colossus, it swam along the coast of ancient Peru more than 37 million years ago
Image: Nature
The discovery was made by University of Pisa paleontologist Giovanii Bianucci and colleagues
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It is believed that the whale was 60-feet-long and may have weighed more than 300 tons
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Its skeleton was discovered among the rocks of the Ica Valley in southern Peru
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Scientists said that the animal's bones were so large that they looked more like boulders
Image: Nature
It belonged to a group of whales that were active predators, munching on larger prey like fish
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However, the weight estimates are complicated by the body proportions of the Perucetus
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Some paleontologists have argued that this would have made the animal impossibly dense
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