How old is the Melville whale?

The Melville whale is a kind of whale, the largest species of the genus Leviathan, a Miocene toothed whale found in South America that lived 13 million years ago. The species is named after the author of Moby Dick and the famous American writer Herman Melville. Let's take a look at how old Melville whale is.

How old is the Melville whale?

At present, the sample of Melville whale has only one skull. Scientists speculate that Melville whale is 17018 meters long, and its teeth are currently found to be up to 35 centimeters long, but in 2013, it was found that 40 centimeters of scorched whale teeth were found, so this Melville whale may be up to 20 meters long. however, due to the small number of fossil samples, scientists can only find that they are top predators like giant-toothed sharks, which are comparable in strength. The body length of Melville whale is 13.5 meters. If you refer to the zygomatic sperm whale, the body length is 16.2 to 17.5 meters, and the maximum length is 20 meters.

What do Melville whales eat?

At present, scientists only know that Melville whale and giant tooth shark are both top predators. The only fossilized skull is 3 meters long, the teeth are 36 centimeters long, and the whole body is estimated to be 13.5 to 17.5 meters long. Its shape and appearance is similar to that of modern sperm whales. But like modern sperm whales, Melville whales only have functional teeth in their jaws. Melville whales have teeth in both jaws, and they are much larger than those of modern sperm whales. It is inferred that Melville whales feed on baleen whales. But a banana-shaped carnivorous whale tooth up to 40 centimeters long was found in 2013, so there may be larger carnivorous sperm whales than Melville whales, or Melville whales can grow bigger.

The discovery of the Melville whale

The Melville whale was discovered accidentally by Klaas Post of the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on the last day of a field expedition in November 2008. The team was led by Dr. Christian de Miyzong, curator of the French National Museum of Natural History, and included paleontologists from the University of Utrecht and the Natural History Museum of Rotterdam, Pisa, Lima and Brussels. Its genus name is taken from the Leviathan in the Bible, and the name is Herman Melville, the author of the novel Moby Dick. The authors of the paper are all fans of the novel, and they all hope to pay homage to Mei's findings. The fossils were restored in Lima, Peru, and the discovery was published on June 30, 2010 in the journal Nature, which also released a seven-minute film covering fossil excavations and interviewing researchers involved. Fossils are now in the Lima Museum of Natural History.