Submission + - The Giant Bite - Discovery of Leviathan melvillei (npr.org)
tiberus writes: Christopher Joyce writes:
Rarely do scientists get to publish a research paper that begins with the words "The Giant Bite." On Wednesday, fossil hunters from Europe did just that. They've discovered one of the biggest predators that ever lived: a whale — one that devoured other whales and probably anything else it had an appetite for.
The scientists call the creature Leviathan melvillei. "Leviathan" means sea monster, and "melvillei" refers, of course, to Herman Melville, who wrote the greatest of whale stories, Moby-Dick. Paleontologist Olivier Lambert says he's read that book — several times.
"I love the book," he says. "So, it was the reason why we selected that species name."
Lambert is with the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, and you might call him a modern-day Ahab, though what he's after are the whitened bones of extinct whales. Two years ago in a Peruvian desert, his team found some from a sperm whale that lived and died some 12 to 13 million years ago — when the desert was underwater.
Rarely do scientists get to publish a research paper that begins with the words "The Giant Bite." On Wednesday, fossil hunters from Europe did just that. They've discovered one of the biggest predators that ever lived: a whale — one that devoured other whales and probably anything else it had an appetite for.
The scientists call the creature Leviathan melvillei. "Leviathan" means sea monster, and "melvillei" refers, of course, to Herman Melville, who wrote the greatest of whale stories, Moby-Dick. Paleontologist Olivier Lambert says he's read that book — several times.
"I love the book," he says. "So, it was the reason why we selected that species name."
Lambert is with the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, and you might call him a modern-day Ahab, though what he's after are the whitened bones of extinct whales. Two years ago in a Peruvian desert, his team found some from a sperm whale that lived and died some 12 to 13 million years ago — when the desert was underwater.
