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The world of paleontology was recently shaken by the discovery of a giant sperm whale fossil in Peru. Quickly called the “Leviathan” whale in honor of Moby Dick’s author Herman Melville, its size is staggering. The whale’s head was larger than a human being (see image 3 below). This whale is said to have been up to 58 feet wide, much like the modern sperm whale that descended from it. But whereas the modern sperm whale does not have teeth on the top of its gums, this ancient whale had teeth that were over 14 inches long! They are the largest teeth ever found in a whale fossil. Scientists speculate that the whale fed on other whales, as shown in the illustration above.

The fossil was found by Klaas Post in Peru’s Pisco basin (above). It has now been mounted under the supervision of Dr. Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi at the Museum of Natural History in Peru (below).

The whale species is referred to as raptorial - that is, it was always hunting. Its skull is about three times the size of today’s killer whales, which do hunt other whales but typically in packs. Leviathan whales needed no company to do their hunting. The top illustration shows a Leviathan whale grabbing a smaller whale, its teeth probably doing an enormous amount of damage with the first bite. Giant shark fossils have been found nearby as well, suggesting that the Leviathan whale had stiff competition in its pursuit of food. Clearly the rise of such enormous creatures meant that the ancient Peruvian seas were rich sources of nutrition 12 or 13 million years ago.

Indeed, we might be happy that we were not around to meet the Leviathan whale. Its skull literally could have crushed us (or a boat!). Today’s sperm whales prefer to dive deep for squid, and use the suction force of their mouths to draw in food. Much smaller lower jaw teeth are used for quarrels with other whales rather than hunting. Whew. One can only imagine that our feelings towards whales today would be much less warm if Leviathans still roamed the seas.

Many thanks to Dr. Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi at the Museo de Historia Natural - UNMSM in Peru for his help with this article. Illustration by C. Letenneur, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France.