Perucetus colossus

[andrewsaurus rex]

i'm pretty sure it was, to my recollection.   I remember I had a magazine article, with really nice artwork....I think the article was written by Bakker, this is about 30 years ago and in the article the size estimates were enormous; 60 feet plus.

[Concavenator]

interesting animal but I too am skeptical of the size estimates.

Turns out you were right, Perucetus is no longer such a colossus. Here's the paper downsizing it.

And an illustration by Cullen Townsend:

[Carnoking]

Nooooooooooooo     

Such is the nature of science and discovery I suppose

[Faelrin]

I'm not at all surprised, this happens quite a lot in this field. New discovery, some ground breaking sizing happens, and then gets downsized in a new paper down the road. 

At least the memes were rather enjoyable whale they lasted.

[VD231991]

My opinion on the true size of Perucetus given the limited material of the holotype specimen of P. colossus has been vindicated by this paper. Indeed, the pachyostotic nature of the back vertebrae of Perucetus is a key characterisic of pachycetine basilosaurids, and since Antaecetus is currently the only pachycetine known from complete remains, further excavation at the Perucetus type locality may uncover extra remains that could signal that Perucetus could still be a very large basilosaurid even if the weight estimate range for Perucetus is far less than initially believed.

[Papi-Anon]

So in just 6 months Perucetus lost 226 tons? Forget WW or Jenny Craig, we have the ultimate weight-loss plan here!

Jokes aside, I had a (pardon the pun) sinking feeling that those size estimates were way too extreme.

[Perotorum]

I am sure we can all intoxicate our delusions with copium with the former Bruhatkayosaurus, right?