The heaviest animal ever? Massive whale that lived 40 million years ago found in desert

Dating of volcanic ash at the site means the team could date the species to between 39.8 and 37.84 million years ago, in the Eocene epoch.

At that point other members of the cetacean family — which includes dolphins and whales — were still “abandoning the terrestrial lifestyle in favor of a marine one,” said Elisa Malinverno, a member of the research team.

The Perucetus colossus may have used its heavy skeleton as a ballast to roam around the ocean floor, feeding along the seabed like modern-day sea cows and some sharks, the study said.

“It’s just exciting to see such a giant animal that’s so different from anything we know,” said Hans Thewissen, a paleontologist at Northeast Ohio Medical University who had no role in the research, according to the Associated Press.

The Ica desert, one of the driest places on Earth, is also where scientists found the oldest known four-legged cetacean to reach the Pacific Ocean and the earliest ancestor of the modern baleen whales.

Patrick Smith

Patrick Smith is a London-based editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.

This post was originally published on this site