The heaviest animal alive today continues to be held by blue whales, which can weigh up to 190 tons. A newly announced discovery indicates the existence of an animal that was almost twice as heavy as a blue whale millions of years ago.
Scientists have determined that an animal fossil discovered in Peru’s Pisco Basin basin lived 39 million years ago. Although the fossil pointed to a new animal species, its main attraction was its estimated weight when alive.
The fossil is actually not newly discovered, but studies have been going on for 10 years!
The creature whose fossil was found was named “Perucetus colossus”. In fact, this fossil has not been discovered recently, either. The fossil was discovered by paleontologist Mario Urbina. However, it took 3 years to bring the fossil from the point where it was discovered to Lima, the capital of Peru. Studies on the fossil continued for 10 years.
The fossil consisted of a total of 18 bones. Thirteen of these were vertebrae, four were ribs, and one was part of the hipbone. Each vertebra weighed over 100 kilograms. Despite such a small number of bones, great clues were found.
But getting to these clues was not easy either. Because when scientists tried to drill a hole to examine the density of the bone, the drill broke down on their first try.
It can weigh close to 320 tons!
It was announced that the fossil could have been 17-20 meters long while it was alive, and the bone weight alone could have been between 5.3 and 7.6 tons. When organs, muscles and fat were added to the bones, it was evaluated that the weight could be between 85 and 320 tons.
Of course, the net weight of the creature cannot be said at this stage. But if these predictions are correct, Perucetus colossus may enter the literature as the heaviest creature in history.
The research was published in the journal Nature.
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