Livyatan Ambush (Prehistoric Bayside)

The killer sperm whale (Livyatan melvillei) was the largest macropredator that has ever lived and possessed the largest functional teeth in the animal kingdom. Evidence of their presence is found in Prehistoric Bayside, most spectacularly in the form of some truly colossal teeth. More complete material, including a partial skull, has been recovered from Peru but much of how this whale lived is not known.

Here, we show a pod in the act of hunting, ambushing a few baleen whales from below. Baleen whales were usually small in Miocene Beaumaris, Victoria and it seems likely they would have had quite a fraught existence sharing the seas with both the megalodon (the largest shark that ever lived) and Livyatan.

We wanted to go with a white whale for our hunter in this scene (for obvious reasons), but I worry that's lost a little as we've heaped texture and layers onto it. This painting was the one I received the most assistance with from Zev Landes and Ben Francischelli and I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out.