Extended Data Fig. 10 in A heavyweight early whale pushes the boundaries of vertebrate morphology

Extended Data Fig. 10 | Reconstruction of Perucetus colossus in its coastal habitat. Because portions of the skeleton are unknown, several aspects of the reconstruction are tentative:the overall proportions of the axial postcranium are based on a close relative Cynthiacetus peruvianus, which was scaled-up and dilated according to the elements recovered for P.colossus (see Extended Data Fig. 8); the skull and limbs were only scaled-up; the tail fluke and forelimb use (bottom-walking) are based on the manatee (Trichechus), the extant marine mammal with the closest degree of pachyosteosclerosis in the postcranial skeleton; the hind limb of P.colossus was not recovered, but the anatomy of its innominate indicates the presence of a reduced, articulated leg. The associated sawfish (Pristis) was recovered from the same unit in the East Pisco Basin, the Yumaque Member of the Paracas Formation87. Reconstruction by A.Gennari.