`SEA MONSTER` FOSSIL FOUND IN PERU DESERT
Baku, July 6 (AZERTAC). Researchers scanning the Peruvian desert for whale fossils have stumbled upon the remains of a "sea monster" three times the size of a modern day killer whale.
The teeth of "Leviathan Melvillei" were so large it was initially assumed they were elephant tusks.
They had been searching for other types of whale fossils in a remote area some 300 kilometers south of Lima. "The place where we found it was 20 kilometers from the nearest village," said Reumer, who is also director of Natural History Museum in Rotterdam.
Strong winds had shifted sand to expose a three-meter long fossilized skull. The skull of today`s blue whale, still the largest animal ever known to have existed, is around six meters long.
The fossilized remains found in Peru include a jaw bone and several teeth, each around 12 centimeters in diameter and up to 36 centimeters in length.
The size of its teeth indicate that the mammal fed on large prey, possibly baleen whales which were plentiful at the time of the Leviathan`s existence around 12 million to 13 million years ago, in the middle of the Miocene Age, Reumer said.
It is not known why they became extinct. Reumer said it could have been due to "climatic deterioration."
The remains of the Leviathan Melvillei will remain in Peru at the Museo de Historia Natural in Lima. Casts of the three largest teeth are on display at the the Natural History Museum Rotterdam.
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