Smithsonian Magazine
The species was around the size of a bottlenose dolphin and thrived 41 million years ago
It’s been a record-smashing month for ancient whales. Last week,
scientists unveiled fossils of what could have been the heftiest animal to ever live,
a prehistoric whale that clocked in at 400,000 pounds. And now, paleontologists have announced a groundbreaking find on the other end of the spectrum: a tiny, extinct whale that weighed only 410 pounds. The little creature grew just about eight feet long—or the size of a modern-day bottlenose dolphin.