Livyatan melvillei
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This sperm whale is what nightmares are made of. Known from Miocene Peru ~10-9 Mya and with tentative material elsewhere, this was a terrifying prehistoric sea monster. Named after the Biblical sea monster Leviathan albeit with the Hebrew spelling and thanks to the excavators being Moby Dick fans, after the author of Moby Dick himself Hermann Melville. Livyatan was about as large as a common sperm whale at ~17.5 meters long and weighing ~57 tonnes but it was more like its fellow extinct physeteroids with huge jaws of sharp teeth lining both rows more like a macro predatory whale like an orca or false killer whale but blown to super size. So that proves fiction 0, science 1 in scariness! It’s impossible to prove if Livyatan had sexual dimorphism like today’s cetaceans.
Livyatan was an apex predator in the Miocene oceans. Few creatures were safe from its savage jaws. Cetotheres like Piscobalaena, pinnipeds like Piscophoca, sea dinosaurs like Pelagornis, and even the sloth Thalassocnus were just some of many prey for this giant sea monster. Fellow toothed whales who were predators in their own right like Brachydelphis and Acrophyseter were prey too. Livyatan would’ve also loved fish for food including sharks. Diving underwater to ambush prey from below is a reasonable hypothesis for Livyatan’s hunting method. It would no doubt have faced competition from Otodus megalodon although there probably was enough food to keep things calm. But if there wasn’t or if they crossed into each other’s territory, the fights would’ve been spectacular to witness.
It’s a reasonable guess Livyatan bore one calf at a time. Pregnancy periods are unclear but they can be guessed at based on the sperm whale so about a year. Livyatan likely lived for many decades. Pod life is unknown and given the immense difficulty in finding enough food for a whole pod, one might assume Livyatan was solitary. The function of the spermaceti organ is unknown and it’s unlikely to be for deep sea diving given Livyatan hunted prey closer to the surface or shallows.
It’s unclear how these giants went extinct although their extinction coincided with mass extinctions of baleen whales and the rise of predatory delphinids and sharks although they could easily have just been benefactors of the extinction of Livyatan.
Livyatan hasn’t appeared much in popular culture despite its impressiveness. It’s appeared in some online documentaries like The jaws of the Livyatan. Julian Johnson-mortimer has made some animation featuring the whale’s rivalry with Megalodon. Forums that have vs battles will no doubt include Livyatan vs Megalodon.
This sperm whale is what nightmares are made of. Known from Miocene Peru ~10-9 Mya and with tentative material elsewhere, this was a terrifying prehistoric sea monster. Named after the Biblical sea monster Leviathan albeit with the Hebrew spelling and thanks to the excavators being Moby Dick fans, after the author of Moby Dick himself Hermann Melville. Livyatan was about as large as a common sperm whale at ~17.5 meters long and weighing ~57 tonnes but it was more like its fellow extinct physeteroids with huge jaws of sharp teeth lining both rows more like a macro predatory whale like an orca or false killer whale but blown to super size. So that proves fiction 0, science 1 in scariness! It’s impossible to prove if Livyatan had sexual dimorphism like today’s cetaceans.
Livyatan was an apex predator in the Miocene oceans. Few creatures were safe from its savage jaws. Cetotheres like Piscobalaena, pinnipeds like Piscophoca, sea dinosaurs like Pelagornis, and even the sloth Thalassocnus were just some of many prey for this giant sea monster. Fellow toothed whales who were predators in their own right like Brachydelphis and Acrophyseter were prey too. Livyatan would’ve also loved fish for food including sharks. Diving underwater to ambush prey from below is a reasonable hypothesis for Livyatan’s hunting method. It would no doubt have faced competition from Otodus megalodon although there probably was enough food to keep things calm. But if there wasn’t or if they crossed into each other’s territory, the fights would’ve been spectacular to witness.
It’s a reasonable guess Livyatan bore one calf at a time. Pregnancy periods are unclear but they can be guessed at based on the sperm whale so about a year. Livyatan likely lived for many decades. Pod life is unknown and given the immense difficulty in finding enough food for a whole pod, one might assume Livyatan was solitary. The function of the spermaceti organ is unknown and it’s unlikely to be for deep sea diving given Livyatan hunted prey closer to the surface or shallows.
It’s unclear how these giants went extinct although their extinction coincided with mass extinctions of baleen whales and the rise of predatory delphinids and sharks although they could easily have just been benefactors of the extinction of Livyatan.
Livyatan hasn’t appeared much in popular culture despite its impressiveness. It’s appeared in some online documentaries like The jaws of the Livyatan. Julian Johnson-mortimer has made some animation featuring the whale’s rivalry with Megalodon. Forums that have vs battles will no doubt include Livyatan vs Megalodon.
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. Though, I imagine it'd be possible to set a similar sort of story in that era!
. Much newer than I thought. 
!