Lifeboat Foundation

A massive extinct whale may have just stolen the title of biggest animal ever. According to a paper published today in, the creature—dubbed Perucetus colossus—could have weighed as much as 340 tons—nearly 75% more than the largest blue whales, the all-time record holder. That estimate comes from a 39-million-year-old partial skeleton unearthed in Peru. Even if the calculation turns out to be an overestimate, the animal was clearly huge, experts tell. The rotund giant would likely have been too sluggish to chase small but abundant critters like krill, the researchers say. Instead, its manateelike proportions (above in artist’s reconstruction) suggest it fed on the sea floor—though without a skull to examine, whether it was similarly vegetarian or preferred a more carnivorous diet remains a mystery.