The largest sea creature of all time was recently discovered—but in the middle of a desert in Peru! Scientists found the fossilized remains of an ancient whale, believed to have lived over 30 million years ago. This massive creature, called Perucetus colossus, could have weighed up to 200 tons, rivaling or even surpassing today’s blue whales. Finding it in a desert is wild, but back in its day, that area was underwater, part of a prehistoric ocean. Its bones were so dense and heavy that researchers think it might’ve been a slow swimmer, spending most of its time floating and feeding. This discovery is rewriting what we know about ancient marine life and just how gigantic creatures could get!
Credit:
Whale Vertebrae: By Nancy Hann, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60544388
Serra da Capivara: By Vitor 1234, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4176607
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0:
Perucetus colossus: By Stegotyranno, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=135491272
Skeleton of Whale: By Zacharia Nyambu, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92438511
Perucetus & Ocucajea: By SpinoDragon145, https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Perucetus_%26_Ocucajea_edited.jpg
Mesturus verrucosus: By ©️ Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons), https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2456091
Camel graffiti: By John Romano D’Orazio, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70363054
CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0:
Blue whale: By dannzjs/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/oLtBL
Perucetus colossus: By Major/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/oJTsD
Killer Whale: By Trouvaille/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/6SI7C
ダイナンアナゴ Sea Eel, Conger erebennus: By ffish.asia / floraZia.com/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/o8CYw
Mollweide Paleographic Map: By Scotese, Christopher R.; Vérard, Christian; Burgener, Landon; Elling, Reece P.; Kocsis, Ádám T. – https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10659112, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=155112447
Person: By minikin/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/Ku97
ナマズ Amur Catfish, Silurus asotus: By ffish.asia / floraZia.com/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/oBpq9
Groenlandaspis: By Aleksey Grishchenko/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/oxv6K
Sea krait / Sea snake: By saltoc in training/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/o8yQG
Fish Jaw: By RISD Nature Lab/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/o67LL
Serrasalmimus: By Sophie Fernandez (MNHN) – Romain Vullo, Lionel Cavin, Bouziane Khallouf, Mbarek Amaghzaz, Nathalie Bardet, Nour-Eddine Jalil, Essaid Jourani, Fatima Khaldoune und Emmanuel Gheerbran – https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-06792-x, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91897531
Serrasalmimus 2: By Lilian Cazes – Romain Vullo, Lionel Cavin, Bouziane Khallouf, Mbarek Amaghzaz, Nathalie Bardet, Nour-Eddine Jalil, Essaid Jourani, Fatima Khaldoune and Emmanuel Gheerbran – https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-06792-x, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91834440
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