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Livyatan is an extinct genus of macroraptorial sperm whale containing one known species: L. melvillei.The genus name was inspired by the biblical sea monster Leviathan, and the species name by Herman Melville, the author of the famous novel Moby-Dick about a white bull sperm whale.
Macroraptorial sperm whales occupied the same niche as killer whales (Orcinus orca). Using their large and deeply rooted teeth, wide-opening jaws, and great size, they likely fed on a variety of sea life, including fish, cephalopods, seals, and small whales and dolphins, occupying a niche similar to the modern day killer whale (Orcinus orca).
Sperm whales are believed to prey on the megamouth shark, a rare and large deep-sea species discovered in the 1970s. [165] In one case, three sperm whales were observed attacking or playing with a megamouth. [166] Sperm whales have also been noted to feed on bioluminescent pyrosomes such as Pyrosoma atlanticum.
A livyatan refers to a toothed whale that actually existed. According to Kim, the livyatan is an ancient whale related to a modern sperm whale. Its skull is about nine feet long and its teeth are ...
The lumbar vertebrae were elongated and may have supported large multifidus and longissimus muscles in the back, likely larger than the modern sperm whale, and so it probably swam faster than the modern sperm whale; [1] the modern sperm whale typically travels horizontally at 4 kilometers per hour (2.5 mph), comparable to other large open-ocean ...
Size comparison between the sperm whale (blue), the pygmy sperm whale (green), and the dwarf sperm whale (orange) The dwarf sperm whale can range in size from 2 to 2.7 m (6.6 to 8.9 ft) in length and 136 to 272 kg (300 to 600 lb) in weight—less than the 4.25 m (14 ft) and 417 kg (920 lb) pygmy sperm whale.
Scientists studying the sperm whales that live around the Caribbean island of Dominica have described for the first time the basic elements of how they might be talking to each other, in an effort ...
I. Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), the most important prey of Nantucket whaling fleet, which operated principally in the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. The notorious fictional white whale Moby Dick in the novel is of this species, and is based on the real-life sperm whale Mocha Dick in the South Pacific in the 1840s. For dramatic effect ...