Key Points
Each vertebra weighs over 220 pounds (100 kilograms) and its ribs measure nearly 5 feet (1.4 meters) long...
While today's blue whale has long held the title, scientists have dug up fossils from an ancient giant that could tip the scales.S)..
Its just exciting to see such a giant animal thats so different from anything we know," said Hans Thewissen, a paleontologist at Northeast Ohio Medical University who had no role in the research..
The massive fossils, which are 39 million years old, are unlike anything Ive ever seen, said study author Alberto Collareta, a paleontologist at Italy's University of Pisa..
They used the huge but incomplete skeleton to estimate the whale's size and weight, using modern marine mammals for comparison, said study author Eli Amson, a paleontologist at the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany..
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