The
large leviathan that was the bane of Ahab's existence in Herman
Melville's Moby Dick has a new ancient
relative that might have lived up to the
fictional beast's monstrosity. Leviathan melvillei, a giant toothed whale, is described in a new paper, published online June 29 in Nature (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group). The researchers have studied one specimen's fossil remains—several teeth and portions of the jaw. From this, the team estimates that the skull would have been at least three meters long—and the body longer than 13 meters.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Observations: A whale of a fossil is named in honor of Herman Melville
Author: Katherine Harmon
