Each vertebra weighs over 220 pounds (100 kilos) and its ribs measure nearly 5 feet (1.4 metres) long.
The massive fossils, which are 39 million years old, “are unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” said study author Alberto Collareta, a paleontologist at Italy’s University of Pisa.
They calculated that the ancient giant weighed somewhere between 94 and 375 tons . The biggest blue whales found have been within that range — at around 200 tons .Article content This means the newly discovered whale was “possibly the heaviest animal ever,” Collareta said, but “it was most likely not the longest animal ever.”
Those super-dense bones suggest that the whale may have spent its time in shallow, coastal waters, the authors said. Other coastal dwellers, like manatees, have heavy bones to help them stay close to the seafloor.
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