Livyatan

Livyatan is an extinct genus of macroraptorial sperm whale, containing one known species: L. melvillei. The genus name was inspired by the biblical sea monster Leviathan, and the species name by Herman Melville, the author of the famous novel Moby-Dick about a white bull sperm whale. Herman Melville often referred to whales as "Leviathans" in his book. It is mainly known from the Pisco Formation of Peru during the Tortonian stage of the Miocene epoch, about 8.9–9.9 million years ago (mya); however, finds of isolated teeth from other locations such as Chile, Argentina, the United States (California), South Africa and Australia imply that either it or a close relative survived into the Pliocene, around 5 mya, and may have had a global presence.

Livyatan

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
PhyseteroideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Odontoceti
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Cetacea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marine,freshwaterPBDB, for Odontoceti
Length
17.5 mWikidata
Mass
57 tonneWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 6.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 3.6 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesMiocene — about 4 of 6 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 6 occurrencesPliocene24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–9.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.9–9.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.2–8.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.6–7.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.9–7.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.2–6.5 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences6.5–5.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences5.8–5.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences5.1–4.5 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences4.5–3.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.8–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11.63 Mya5.333 Mya23.5 Mya3.1 Mya

6 occurrences of Livyatan on record, most of them in the Miocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

6 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

6 formations

Pisco — 14.34°S, 75.91°WSaladar — 40.34°S, 65.60°WAlexander Bay — 30.32°S, 17.29°EBahía Inglesa — 27.08°S, 70.84°WCapistrano — 33.60°N, 117.67°WVarswater — 33.67°S, 18.43°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Livyatan has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Livyatan and its relatives

Miocene

Where Livyatan and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

95 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Livyatan, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

6 references

Each of the 6 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Livyatan

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
Major
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPhyseteroidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lambert et al. 2010