Re: Biggest Predator

[pwillis@ozemail.com.au (Paul Willis)]

>larrydunn@hotmail.com wrote:
>
>>Am I forgetting someone, folks, or is the Sperm Whale far and >away the
>largest single predator of large lifeforms ever to >live on Earth (excluding,
>rather arbitrarily, harvesters of >krill)?  Or was there some Pliosaur that
>was bigger?
>
>The Australian pliosaur, Kronosaurus queenslandicus, certainly came close to
>the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) in size, reaching lengths of 42-56
>feet (as compared to the sperm whale's 67+ feet).  Some of the larger
>mosasaurs (Tylosaurus, Mosasaurus) may have rivaled or surpassed Kronosaurus
>in size, however. The Triassic ichthyosaur Shonisaurus apparently reached
>similar lengths (54+ feet), but still smaller than Physeter.

I don't know where you got these measurements from for Kronosaurus but the
absolute upper size guestimate I have seen for Kronosaurus is 12.8 metres
(about 38 feet in analog terms). It is significantly smaller than an adult
Sperm Whale.

Cheers,

Paul


Dr Paul M.A. Willis
Consulting Vertebrate Palaeontologist
Quinkana Pty Ltd
pwillis@ozemail.com.au