Ancient whale from Peru may be Earth's largest animal

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Scientists on Wednesday (August 2) put on display fossils of an early whale unearthed in Peru called Perucetus colossus that lived about 38-40 million years ago. "It was an animal that weighed 199 tonnes and was over 20 metres long," palaeontologist Rodolfo Salas Gismondi said.

Researchers estimated that Perucetus was about 20m long and weighed up to 340 tonnes, a mass that would exceed any other known animal including today's blue whale and the largest dinosaurs.

The minimum mass estimate for Perucetus was 77 tonnes, with an average estimate of 163 tonnes.

Argentinosaurus, a long-necked, four-legged herbivore that lived about 95 million years ago in Argentina and was ranked in a study published in May as the most-massive dinosaur, was estimated at about 69 tonnes.

The partial skeleton of Perucetus was excavated in a coastal desert in southern Peru - a region rich with whale fossils - with 13 vertebrae, four ribs and one hip bone.