Giovanni Bianucci/Handout via REUTERSAug 2 (Reuters) - Move over, blue whale.
The biggest-known blue whale weighed around 190 tons, though it was longer than Perucetus at 110 feet (33.5 meters).
Its skeletal mass alone was estimated at between 5 and 8 tons, at least twice that of the blue whale.
The researchers suspect Perucetus lived like sirenians - not an active predator but an animal that fed near the bottom of shallow coastal waters.
The researchers said it was unlikely Perucetus was a filter-feeder like today's baleen whales including the blue whale.
Persons:
Giovanni Bianucci, Perucetus, Bianucci, Olivier Lambert of, Will Dunham, Rosalba O'Brien
Organizations:
REUTERS, University of Pisa, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Thomson
Locations:
Peru, Handout, Italy, Argentina, sirenians, Brussels, hoofed, Washington