Researchers studying the sharpness mark leave alone behind on a fractured dodo skull have calculated the incredible os - crushing bite of an ancient whale : Basilosaurus isischomped down on other whales with the power of over 1,600 kilograms ( 3,500 pounds ) . Thefindingswere published inPLOS ONEthis week .
innovative heavyweight emerged from archaeocete whale in the latest Eocene or earliest Oligocene around 34 million years ago . But unlike their early ancestors , today ’s whales do n’t masticate . Baleen whale filter provender , while toothed whales captivate prey and immerse them whole ( or at least in magnanimous pieces ) . The archaeoceteBasilosaurus isislived during the late Eocene between 40 million and 34 million yr ago . Its name sounds like a dinosaur ’s because whenBasilosaurusfossils were first describe in the former 19th Century , PLOS blogs explain , its guts resembled those of prehistorical devil dog reptiles . Its tooth wear suggests that it crushed large , hard objects like mammal bones — in accession to feed on fish , base on fossilized venter contents . By correspond their teeth to sting marks on the skulls of juvenileDorudon atroxwhales , research worker antecedently revealed thatBasilosaurusate other whales .
Now , a trio led byEric Snively from the University of Wisconsin — La Crosseexamined a near - complete skeleton of an adultBasilosaurus isisexcavated decades ago from Birket Qarun Formation of Wadi Al - Hitan in Egypt . It had a total body length of 16 meters ( 52 ft ) , and its skull alone was over a beat long .
The team model its bite force by immix two proficiency : the dry - skull method acting gauge muscle force and Finite Element Analysis looks at reaction forces at the tooth and jaw junction . And sinceBasilosaurustooth get into and collation marks onDorudon atroxfossils point preferential bite positions , the team was able to place estimates of bit force to functionally decisive localisation .
According to their good example , at its upper third premolar , Basilosauruspacked 16,400 Newtons of forcefulness — and possibly more . BasilosaurusbitDorudoncalves across the head , and sometimes adjusted the quarry in its sass before delivering the bone - infiltrate bite . Additionally , comparisons with carnivores and scavengers suggestsBasilosauruswas an active vulture .
Their collation forcefulness estimates forBasilosaurusare the large known for any mammal — much more than today ’s ivory - breakers , like the spotted hyaena . engrossed hyenas exert about 3,500 N , and wild hyena in Africa in all probability maintain doubled that . Crocodylians and tyrannosaur , however , have bite force well beyond that ofBasilosaurus .
