Скачать или смотреть The Giant Prehistoric Sperm Whale: Livyatan melvillei

Livyatan is an extinct genus of macroraptorial sperm whale containing one known species: L. melvillei. The genus name was inspired by the biblical sea dragon Leviathan, and the species name by Herman Melville, the author of the famous novel "Moby Dick" about a white bull sperm whale. Herman Melville often referred to whales as "Leviathans" in his book. It is mainly known from the Pisco Formation of Peru, but there were also finds of isolated teeth from other locations such as Chile, Argentina, the United States (California), South Africa and Australia and may have had a global presence. It was a member of a group of macroraptorial sperm whales (or "raptorial sperm whales") and was probably an apex predator, preying on whales, seals and so forth. Characteristically of raptorial sperm whales, Livyatan had functional, enamel-coated teeth on the upper and lower jaws, as well as several features suitable for hunting large prey. Males were larger than females and could grow to be 70 feet (21 meters) long. It has been hypothesized that due to many of these features, Livyatan occupied a giant-killer whale like niche and preyed upon baleen whales and other large marine mammals. It also preyed on the largest shark ever, the Megalodon (Otodus megalodon).