Inside Natures Prehistoric Giants: “Livyatan”, the Killer Sperm Whale
The jagged southern coastline of Australia, 5.5 million years ago... Modern Sperm whales are the largest toothed animals that have ever existed. At 20 metres in length and over 50 metric tonnes, "Physeter" and its distant relatives have dominated the marine landscape since the Pliocene... Image via Caters News Agency The Miocene climate in Australia is significantly warmer. The vegetation is slowly transitioning on the mainland; where once lush rainforests adorned the isolated continent throughout the Oligocene and mid Miocene, dry schlerophyll forests and open woodland are dominating the landscape with stringy barked eucalypts. Bizarre creatures traverse these coastlines; Zygomaturines (cow sized animals that superficially resemble wombats) stomp over small shrubby vegetation, the so-called “Demon Ducks of Doom” (2 metre tall flightless birds) race each other, kicking up the dust behind them and giant flying sea-birds (the Pelagornithids, with a 6