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[60] [61] Earlier variety were probably preyed upon by killer sperm whales and large sharks such as megalodon. In 2008, a large number of fossil ziphiids were discovered off the coast of South Africa, confirming the remaining ziphiid species might just be a remnant of a higher diversity that has since gone extinct.
Once a whale was sighted, rowing boats were sent from the shore. If the whale was successfully killed it was towed ashore, flensed (i.e., the blubber was cut off), and the blubber boiled in cauldrons known as "try pots". Even when whales were caught far offshore, the blubber was still boiled on shore well into the 18th century.
Perucetus is an extinct genus of an early whale from Peru that lived during the Bartonian age of the middle Eocene. Perucetus is the largest Eocene whale, with length estimates varying from 15–16 meters (49–52 ft) to 17–20 meters (56–66 ft).
Basilosaurus (meaning "king lizard") is a genus of large, predatory, prehistoric archaeocete whale from the late Eocene, approximately 41.3 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). First described in 1834, it was the first archaeocete and prehistoric whale known to science. [ 2 ]
The most conspicuous fossils are the skeletons and bones of whales and sea cows, and over several hundred fossils of these have been documented. [9] Wādī al-Ḥītān (Whale Valley) is unusual in having such a large concentration of fossil whales (1500 marine vertebrate fossil skeletons) in a relatively small area.
The whale's remains suggest it's a smaller relative of Basilosaurus cetoides, which lived along Alabama's coast 34-40 million years ago.
The list of extinct cetaceans features the extinct genera and species of the order Cetacea. The cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are descendants of land-living mammals, the even-toed ungulates. The earliest cetaceans were still hoofed mammals.
[394] [395] These remains were later named Ichthyotitan and it has been estimated to reach up to 25 m (82 ft), which makes it the largest ichthyosaur and the largest marine reptile ever. [396] Another large ichthyosaur was the Late Triassic Shastasaurus sikanniensis at 21 m (69 ft) in length [397] [398] and 81.5 t (180,000 lb) in weight. [399]