A heavyweight early whale pushes the boundaries of vertebrate morphology

Bianucci, Giovanni; Lambert, Olivier; Urbina, Mario; Merella, Marco; Collareta, Alberto; Bennion, Rebecca; Salas-Gismondi, Rodolfo; Benites‐Palomino, Aldo; Post, Klaas; Muizon, Christian de; Bosio, Giovanni; Celma, Claudio Di; Malinverno, Elisa; Pierantoni, Pietro Paolo; Villa, Igor M.; Amson, Eli

doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06381-1

Cited by 15 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…For the purposes of this study, we used five body lengths—17 m that was used as the minimum length for Perucetus , 25 m that was used by Bianucci et al (2023) , 30 m as convenient benchmark for blue whale length maxima, 33 m after Risting (1928) , and lastly an arbitrary value of 15 m (half the latter benchmark) for data exploration purposes—to validate the implication by Bianucci et al (2023) that Perucetus was larger than the largest blue whales. We employed both length-based on volumetric approaches so that the results can be cross-examined.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is impossible to accurately estimate the body mass of Perucetus volumetrically, given the lack of accurate body outline reconstructions from both ventral and lateral views. However, it is still possible to bracket the upper bound of its body mass based on the data from Bianucci et al (2023) . There are two difficulties involved: that only the lateral view was reconstructed ( Bianucci et al, 2023 ; Fig.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, Bianucci et al (2023) reported a new basilosaurid whale, Perucetus colossus , based on a partial skeleton collected in Eocene rocks from southern Peru. Based on the associated skeletal material ( i.e ., thoracic and lumbar vertebrae in association with four ribs and an incomplete pelvis), Bianucci et al (2023) suggested it was the heaviest whale ever, possibly reaching 17 to 20 m in length and 85 to 340 tons in total weight, rivaling or exceeding the mass of the largest blue whales. They based their estimates on a new method, in which they first estimated the total skeletal mass of Perucetus through extrapolation from the skeletal material and then used the value to secondarily extrapolate its body mass, assuming skeletal to body mass ratios based on extant cetaceans and sirenians.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The purpose of this article is to cross-examine the published body mass estimates of Perucetus using data and methods informed by different perspectives. Specifically, we test the following hypotheses, which were assumed to be true by Bianucci et al (2023) : (1) the published body mass estimates of Perucetus fit the body outline as reconstructed in the same article; (2) the assumption of isometry between skeletal and body masses is valid even with extrapolation; (3) pachyostosis in Perucetus did not lead to overestimated body mass; (4) error rate is low in the body mass estimation method used; (5) skeletal to body mass ratio is well-established and stable within Cetacea; and (6) a large body mass of 340 tons was ecologically feasible given Eocene oceanic productivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Downsizing a heavyweight: factors and methods that revise weight estimates of the giant fossil whale Perucetus colossus

Motani,

Pyenson

2024

PeerJ

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Extremes in organismal size have broad interest in ecology and evolution because organismal size dictates many traits of an organism’s biology. There is particular fascination with identifying upper size extremes in the largest vertebrates, given the challenges and difficulties of measuring extant and extinct candidates for the largest animal of all time, such as whales, terrestrial non-avian dinosaurs, and extinct marine reptiles. The discovery of Perucetus colossus, a giant basilosaurid whale from the Eocene of Peru, challenged many assumptions about organismal extremes based on reconstructions of its body weight that exceeded reported values for blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus). Here we present an examination of a series of factors and methodological approaches to assess reconstructing body weight in Perucetus, including: data sources from large extant cetaceans; fitting published body mass estimates to body outlines; testing the assumption of isometry between skeletal and body masses, even with extrapolation; examining the role of pachyostosis in body mass reconstructions; addressing method-dependent error rates; and comparing Perucetus with known physiological and ecological limits for living whales, and Eocene oceanic productivity. We conclude that Perucetus did not exceed the body mass of today’s blue whales. Depending on assumptions and methods, we estimate that Perucetus weighed 60–70 tons assuming a length 17 m. We calculated larger estimates potentially as much as 98–114 tons at 20 m in length, which is far less than the direct records of blue whale weights, or the 270 ton estimates that we calculated for body weights of the largest blue whales measured by length.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Downsizing a heavyweight: factors and methods that revise weight estimates of the giant fossil whale Perucetus colossus

Motani,

Pyenson

2024

PeerJ

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Review of respiratory anatomy adaptations in whales

Reidenberg,

Laitman

2024

The Anatomical Record

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Whales (cetaceans, including dolphins and porpoises) are superbly adapted to life in water, but retain vestiges of their terrestrial ancestry, particularly the need to breathe air. Their respiratory tract exhibits many differences from their closest relatives, the terrestrial artiodactyls (even toed ungulates). In this review, we describe the anatomy of cetacean respiratory adaptions. These include protective features (e.g., preventing water incursions during breathing or swallowing, mitigating effects of pressure changes during diving/ascent) and unique functions (e.g., underwater sound production, regulating gas exchange during the dive cycle).

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