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 Animation is created by Bright Side. #brightside —————————————————————————————- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/ Listen to Bright Side on: Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Apple Podcast – https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/idhttps-podcasts-apple-com-podcast-bright-side/id1554898078 —————————————————————————————- Our Social Media: Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/brightside/ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official/ Tik Tok – https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Snapchat – https://www.snapchat.com/p/c6a1e38a-bff1-4a40-9731-2c8234ccb19f/1866144599336960 Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru —————————————————————————————- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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