Canis lupus hominis

Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?

Job 41:1

We all know about sperm whales. They are creatures that pop up in our legends and myths. They have appeared in great works of literature, and we already have a popular concept of what these animals are.

There are three modern species.

The cachalot or the common sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is the one most think of when considering these toothed whales. It is a relatively large whale, reaching lengths in excess of 65 feet. It is known for having the largest brain of any living mammal, and it is also known diving to great depths to grapple with giant squid, its main prey source.

The common sperm whale is the largest predator on earth. The great rorquals, such as the fin and blue whale, are quite a bit larger, but they are not considered true predators. They are filter feeders, who rely upon the baleen in their mouths to strain out tiny fish and krill for sustenance.

The cachalot has large, pointed teeth, which the whalers once collected and used to make scrimshaw.  The whales were killed for their blubber, which was used to make train oil.

In the heads of these whales is an organ that produces a white, waxy substance. When the whalers would kill one of these whales, they would come across this substance and assumed that it was the whale’s semen. The term for this substance is spermaceti (“sperm of the whale”) because this really poor understanding of whale anatomy. It was later found to have several industrial properties. It could be used to make candles and industrial lubricants. It could also be used to make cosmetics, ointments, and cerates.

It was a wonder of a substance for its time.

We also know sperm whales from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, which is partly based upon a true story of a bull sperm whale that rammed a whaling ship in the South Pacific.  Bulls are known to be quite protective of their cows, and it is not an urban legend that they might ram a ship to in defense of their females.

Such was the fate of the whaler known as The Essex. It was sunk when a bull sperm whale rammed it, and the whalers had to escape in their smaller whale chasing boats across the South Pacific.  A really good account can be found in this book. Let’s just say that the story includes cannibalism, including sucking the marrow out of another human’s bones.

Herman Melville liked the story so much that he used part of it as the basis for his narrative. Of course, Melville would have heard other stories of bull sperm whales whose aggression towards whalers had become something of legend. (One of these was called “Mocha Dick,”  if that means anything.)

Most people are familiar with this sperm whale.

However, there are two other species that are quite a bit smaller. These are the two whales in the genus Kogia– the dwarf and the pygmy sperm whales. They are significantly smaller than the cachalot. They are both dolphin-sized creatures.  Like the common sperm whale, both of these creatures have spermaceti organs in their heads. Both also carry a reddish substance in their intestines. If they are spooked, they will release that substance. It is thought to be used in the same way as the octopus’s ink. The predator becomes confounded in the substance, allowing the little whale to escape.

I had an encounter with a dead pygmy sperm whale that washed up on the beach on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I had been walking on the beach that morning, as was my normal custom. I saw this pinkish thing off in the distance, and people were stopping to look at it.

I thought nothing of it. I just kept on walking. I didn’t think anything of it. I generally keep my eyes on the birds that frequent the shore, and occasionally, I look out to see if any dolphins or porpoises are swimming just beyond the waves.

When I got closer, I realized it was a whale, and not only that, I knew what it was.

It was dead, but it had not been dead long enough to really start decaying. I could  clearly see its pink belly and blue-gray skin. I could see its brown eyes and its “false gills” behind its head. It had a gash on top of its head. It was likely the result of a run in with a boat propeller. Its hooked teeth were visible in its tiny lower jaw.

With teeth like that, it looked like some kind of monster.

A small crowd began to appear around the corpse.  Vultures of curiosity, I suppose.

I wish I hadn’t answered the question of its identity from someone standing nearby. As soon as my mouth opened, I appeared to be an expert. I am not one. I am not a marine biologist. (The scene was somewhat reminiscent of this).

But I saw my first sperm whale that day.

It wasn’t a big one, but it was something I had only read about or seen on television.

I suppose running into a putrid specimen on a hot, humid beach in North Carolina isn’t quite the same as seeing a real live one.

But it’s close.

Now, those were the facts I knew about sperm whales. They are pretty much just strange toothed whales.

Well, it turns out that there was one a large sperm whale that didn’t use its massive teeth and jaws to hunt squid.

There was once a real Leviathan.

The discovery was released yesterday in the journal Nature.

Fossilized jaws and most of a skull were found in the Peruvian desert. Also found were some massive teeth.

The researchers, who were led by Dr. Christian de Muizon, realized they had discovered something unusual. They had discovered a predatory form of sperm whale that did not live mostly on giant squid.

Even though it was about the same size as the modern sperm whale, this creature was like a giant orca; for instead of eating giant squid, its diet most likely consisted of other marine mammals, including other whales.

This whale was dated to 12 million years ago, and although it may be a bit speculative, it suggests that the common sperm whales evolved from a group of giant predatory whales that later became more specialized as the ecology changed.

It is now believed that 12 million years ago, the oceans were full of large prey species. It would have had to have been to support super predators like this whale and the Megalodon shark, which is also believed to have preyed on whales. Creatures like that need a lot of food sources that are the size of whales, and the oceans must have been beaten to a froth with the number of whale species that once lived there.

As the oceans lost their ability to support these large animals, the Megalodon became extinct and the big sperm whales evolved in to giant squid hunters.

The name for this newly discovered whale is quite literary. Its name is Leviathan melvillei. Leviathan– for the sea creature that is mentioned in the Book of Job.  Melvillei– for the author who created the image of  the fierce sperm whale in the public consciousness.

In fact,  I don’t think I’ve  come across a better scientific name than this one.

But I don’t think I’d want to draw out that creature with a hook.

I don’t think I’d like to meet it unless I was really well-armed.