Livyatan
Artwork by Alberto Gennari
Livyatan
Weight: 57 tonnes
Length: 45-60 ft (13-16 m)
Diet: Carnivore
Scientific name: Livyatan melvillei
Found: Peru
Time Period: 12-15 mya (Cenozoic)
Size, Looks, and Behavior
The Livyatan lived back in the Miocene about 12-15 mya. It lived in places around Peru and was one of the largest raptorial animals that has ever lived. It also had the biggest bite of any tetrapod and possibly vertebrate to ever live. The Livyatan had a short and wide rostrum that gave a more powerful bite to the anterior teeth.
Discovery
The Livyatan was found in Peru in the lower Pisco Formation. Only the skull was found and only about 75% was found. They found some of the mandible, some of the cranium, and most of the maxilla. A few teeth were found, the largest teeth that could get up to 27 cm long and with a diameter of 7-9 cm.
Diet
The Livyatan was a sperm whale that had giant teeth, some getting up to a foot long. What would the Livyatan use these teeth for? Scientists believe that it would have used its teeth to kill other whales. Medium-sized baleen whales to be exact. The skull was about 10 ft long (3 meters). The skull had space for massive jaw muscles allowing it to have one of the largest bites of any animal. Like Orca Whales that roam the oceans today, the Livyatan would have probably bit its prey in a similar way. The teeth were curved forward to get a good grip on struggling prey.
Genus Name
Livyatan’s name is a reference to a biblical monster called the Leviathan. This monster was a sea serpent that symbolizes God's power of creation. It is described as a dragon-like creature but there are many depictions of it. It also symbolizes Israel's enemies. God killed the Leviathan and was given to Hebrews in the wilderness as food. It appears in the bible in Psalms 74:14, Isaiah 27:1, and Job 41.
Artwork by Cameron Dillon
Species Name
The species name melvillei is also a reference to a famous author named Herman Melville who wrote the famous book Moby-Dick that is about a white sperm whale.
Taxonomy
The Livyatan belongs to the superfamily Physeteridae which is the family that all sperm whales belong to. Today there are only 3 modern whales that belong to this family: the Sperm Whale, the Pygmy Sperm Whale, and the Dwarf Sperm Whale.
Rivalry
It may come to you as no surprise that the Livyatan lived alongside the largest shark that ever existed the Megalodon. The Megalodon was the largest shark that could grow up to 58.7 ft (18 m) and some scientists even think that they could grow to 82 ft long (25 m). It also hunted whales and its teeth have been found in the same place where Livyatan was discovered. Some scientists suggest they could have eaten each other's young but there is no evidence supporting this theory at the moment.
Related Articles
Image Credit: Allosaurus: "Allosaurus fragilis Marsh, 1877" by Marshall P. Felch is marked with CC0 1.0. KT Extinction Event: "Lava and basalt at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (2004, Chain of Craters Road) (photograph: Scot Nelson)" by Plant pests and diseases is marked with CC0 1.0. Narwhals: by NOAA. Livyatan: Cam Dillon
Sources
“Leviathan.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/Leviathan-Middle-Eastern-mythology.
“Physeteroidea.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Apr. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physeteroidea.
Yong, Ed. “Behold Livyatan: the Sperm Whale That Killed Other Whales.” Science, National Geographic, 3 May 2021, www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/behold-leviathan-the-sperm-whale-that-killed-other-whales.
Lambert, O., et al. “[Pdf] the Giant Bite of a New Raptorial Sperm Whale from the Miocene Epoch of Peru: Semantic Scholar.” Undefined, 1 Jan. 1970, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-giant-bite-of-a-new-raptorial-sperm-whale-from-Lambert-Bianucci/a5937f5d0e9453f58878759120954d7331a62627.