The Heaviest Animal Ever May Be this Ancient Whale Found in the Peruvian Desert Transcript

First, we have to tell you about the heaviest animal that ever lived, and you guys will love that Krister gave me this read, at least that we know of. It’s a giant ancient whale that used to live in what is now Peru. They don’t think it’s the longest animal to ever live, it’s likely shorter than a blue whale, but its bones are so dense they think it could have weighed up to 375 tons, more than twice a blue whale. The bones they have found include huge vertebrae from its backbone, ribs and a hip bone. Each vertebra weighs over 220 pounds, and the ribs are five feet long. The bones were dug out of the side of a steep rocky slope in what is today a desert, but was once an underwater area that’s known for its rich marine fossils. Researchers reconstructed its look based on existing whales. They say the whale’s dense bones means it lived in shallow waters. They base that on manatees, which have dense bones to help keep them close to the ocean floor. Since archeologists haven’t found the whale’s head they don’t actually know what it ate, but they are suggesting it was possible that it was scavenging food along the sea floor or hovering-up tons of krill and other tiny sea creatures.

It looks like a manatee.

It does.

It does. Yeah. Just an enormous one.

And its head is very small.

Very small compared to the body.

Well, they don’t know.

Right.

So they’re just taking a shot.

Yeah.

This is what we think it could be.

Yeah, maybe.

That’s kind of funny. They have the whole rendering and they’re like, “Oh, we… ”

We don’t know about that part.

Yeah.

Let’s make the head weird. Why not?