(AP / 01-07-10)  A team of palaeontologists has discovered in Peru the fossilized skull and teeth of a giant ancestor of modern sperm whales. The impressive teeth, 36 cm long and 12 centimetres in diameter, could crush other whales that lived at that time.

The terrifying predator has been named Leviathan melvillei, a tribute to both the evil marine monster of The Old Testament, and Herman Melville, author of the legendary novel “Moby Dick”.

Although it has just been published, the remains of this spectacular prehistoric animal were found two years ago, in 2008, when Professor Klass Post, an expert in fossils of mammals of the Natural History Museum of Rotterdam, found them in a short expedition in the desert Pisico-Ica, southeast Peru.

Almost in the surface, they found long fragments of his skull, and the lower jaw and some of its big teeth, everything in surprising conservation conditions. They were so big that, at the beginning, scientist thought they were elephant tusks.

After analyzing the findings, published in the magazine Nature, it was clear that it was a new species of prehistoric whale that should have been incredibly huge. Its skull, 3 meters long, has allowed them to recreate a specimen that might be between 13 and 18 meters long.

Nine of the teeth were in both sides of the skull, and 11 in the inferir jaw. Due to its size, it might be a voracious predator. In the article, the scientists say that it had to feed eating a lot and that its favourite preys could be baleen whales, still existing, because they have a nutritive fat layer that could fill the “Leviathan” stomach.