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Austroraptor β Seas of the past: Melville's Leviathan
Published: 2014-11-09 02:16:21 +0000 UTC; Views: 2408; Favourites: 40; Downloads: 22
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Description
Livyatan melvillei, the last and most fierce of the raptorial sperm whales, this monster prowled the coast of peru during the miocene as the absolute king of its habitat, at an estimated 15m long, Livyatan would've been a nasty problem even for other fierce sea monsters of the time, such as the gigantic otodontid shark Carcharocles Megalodon and its smaller relative Brygymophyseter. ΒBesides dethroning megalodon as the cenozoic king of awesome, Livyatan is also notable for its magnificent teeth, the largest of any animal yet known(aside from tusks), up to 36 cm. Unlike modern day sperm whales, these monsters had teeth in both upper and lower jaws and were fierce predators of sharks and other whales.
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Comments: 16
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It now seems Livyatan might not even be a whale killer but a generalist.
I have no doubt this was the ultimate predatory tetrapod, but the "mother of all predators" returns to the shark.
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Ohh seems interesting, care to share a link?
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We do have to wait for the paper to come out (they're working on it)
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It isn't published stuff, but one of the researchers have given some reasons for this idea:
- lack of enamel of the tooth
- lack of bite marks on whales. In case of C. megalodon, we have quite a few documented cases of its bites being inflicted on whale skeletons. If this thing shared the same diet, why the lack of bite marks despite all the searching?
- Likely to be a pelagic predator-away from all the whale nurseries in shallow water that C. megalodon frequented for sure.
Some even go as far to say this was a teuthivore, but I think that's taking things too far.
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It has NOT dethroned the shark. While I can and will say a pod of these things would kill the biggest Megalodon, it should be noted that the shark has no disadvantages whatsoever one on one (don't underestimate shark intelligence, they are at about the same level as pinnipeds)
Not to mention that the shark lasted into the Pliocene, while Livyatan lasted a much shorter period of time.
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I never said the shark had no disadvantages one on one, but it certainly wasn't the top predator when these things were around, remember, pods of normal, peacefull, suction feeding sperm whales today often scare away orcas and great whites, imagine a pod of one of these beasts, they really had nothing on their way, and i bet you even the largest megalodon out there would avoid them like the plague. Β
Β Now, im not trying to take the shark's glory, it was a formidable predator afterall, but it definatelly wouldn't fuck with a pod of these guys.
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It was. Most of the time predatory whales don't interact with sharks that are similar in size to themselves. They only antagonize the smaller sharks (the cases of orcas killing great whites were all on juvenile sharks).
I also doubt the shark would avoid a pod, as I seriously doubt either predator was stupid enough to try and attack the other.
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The shark would most certainly avoid a pod, as you just said, predators often avoid confrontation between eachother, my point is, if the shark decided to try its luck with one of these guys it was most certainly fucked, imagine a group of highly intelligent sociopathic bastards ganging up on you with their hammer sized teeth, doesn't mater if they're the same size and weight, number alone would drive it away from a pod.Β
my point is, true the shark was still on the predator top tier of its time, but it most certainly would avoid messing with the whales.
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Yes, the number would deter the shark but that is pretty much all they have.
And the whales won't risk attacking even a lone shark, because it is very likely at least one whale dies before the shark gets killed.
I measure badassery in success as a species as well, and in that department Megalodon has the whale and for that matter all other predators beat flat-out.Β
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well if thats so, then grey nurse shark is the most badass creature out there, bloody thing is out here since the cretaceous.
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IKR? For some reason sharks species seem to last a particularly long time. Hell even Carcharodon carcharias has been here for 10 million years.
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Probably not the last, Acrophyseter and some remains atributed to "Scaldicetus" probably were, persisting to very early Pliocene.
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Wow didn't know that, thanks for the info!
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haha, you're welcome
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