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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.
Livyatan probably targeted medium-sized whales ranging in size from 7–10 m (23–33 ft). Macroraptorials probably competed with the extinct giant shark megalodon for the same food sources. [7] [10] [11] [12] In sperm whales, the supracranial basin holds the spermaceti organ, a series of oil and wax reservoirs which aids in echolocation.
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 ...
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 ...
Some balaenopterids perhaps rivaled the blue whale in terms of size, [115] though other studies disagree that any baleen whale grew that large in the Miocene. [116] The true largest macroraptorial sperm whale is none other than the Livyatan, with an estimated length of 44–57 ft (13.5–17.5 m) and an estimated weight of 62.8 short tons (57 ...
However, the amount of fish taken is very little compared to what the sperm whale needs per day. Video footage has been captured of a large male sperm whale "bouncing" a long line, to gain the fish. [164] Sperm whales are believed to prey on the megamouth shark, a rare and large deep-sea species discovered in the 1970s. [165]
For dramatic effect, Melville asserts inaccurately that the sperm whale is the largest creature on Earth. While the blue whale, the true largest whale, was not well-observed at that time, the fin-back whale, the second-largest whale species, was known to whalers and occasionally hunted. The sperm whale is the third-largest whale species. II.
Sperm whale and bottlenose whale. The sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is the largest species of toothed whale, with adult bulls (males) growing to be about 15–18 m (49–59 ft) long, and weighing about 45–70 metric tons (44–69 long tons; 50–77 short tons).