rewriting cetacean history
The researchers were careful not to declare that the ancient whale had broken the record.
But Eli Emson, co-author of the study, told AFP: “There was no reason to think that this specimen was the largest of its kind.”
“I think there is a good chance that some individuals have broken the record – but the take home message is that we are in the ballpark of blue whales,” said Emsen, a paleontologist at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany. ,
A total of 13 mammoth vertebrae – one of which weighed approximately 200 kg (440 lb) – were found at the site, as well as four ribs and a hip bone.
It took years and many voyages to collect and prepare the giant fossils, and it took even longer for the team of Peruvian and European researchers to confirm exactly what they had found.
On Wednesday, they revealed that it is a new species of basilosaurids, an extinct family of cetaceans.
Today’s cetaceans include dolphins, whales and porpoises, but their earliest ancestors lived on land, somewhat resembling small deer.
Over time they moved into the water, and basilosaurids are believed to be the first cetaceans to have a fully aquatic lifestyle.
One of their adaptations at that time was gigantism – they grew very large.
But the new finding indicates that cetaceans reached their peak body mass about 30 million years earlier than previously thought, the study said.