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New from Snet: Lithologs, a new tool to create lithological/sedimentological logs online..

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Sup dawg, I heard u like whales...

AKA the double-winner (so far) for this year's most impressive name and most dramatic media image. Once more, I wish I still had my UMich access to journals. This (surely exaggerated?) monster is Leviathan melvillei (Lambert et al., 2010), a Miocene sperm whale from Peru with teeth in both jaws. Huge teeth, at that, estimated as the largest cetacean teeth known. And, of course, since no news story about a prehistoric monster is complete without saying "OMG it ate dinosaurs/mammoths/big things!!!1!", Leviathan obliges by munching on a "medium-sized" rorqual-style whale.

Leviathan! Not Leviathania or Leviathancetus or whatever! And melvillei is a marvelously appropriate homage, kudos for that one.

Again, it may be argued that the presentation is sensationalistic, but hey! Big whales! Scary! Leave me alone!

I want to read that paper...

References

Lambert, O.; Bianucci, G.; Post, K.; de Muizon, C.; Salas-Gismondi, R.; Urbina, M.; and Reumer, J. (2010) The giant bite of a new raptorial sperm whale from the Miocene epoch of Peru. Nature 466: 105–108

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