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The
Leedsichthys is probably the largest fish ever to have lived. It
grew up to 27m long - that means that just two of the massive fish
laid end-to-end would reach higher than the towers on Leeds Civic
Hall!
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FACT
FILE
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Type:
Ray-finned fish
Size: Up to 27m
Diet: Carnivore
Predators: Liopleurodon, Metriorhynchus, Hybodus sharks
Lived: Late Jurassic, 165-155 million years ago
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But
it was a gentle giant that lived on the tiny shrimps, jellyfish
and small fish that make up plankton.
It
had over 40,000 teeth which were used to sieve small animals from
the water.
Its
feeding habits were similar to the modern blue whale, which also
survives on nothing but plankton.
The fish probably travelled large distances to find parts of the
world where seasonal conditions caused plankton to form itself into
a dense concentrated organic soup.
The
Jurassic seas in which Leedsichthys lived were a dangerous place
and despite its size, it had no formal means of defending itself
against predators such as Liopleurodon and Metriorhynchus.
One
attack would be unlikely to kill a full-grown Leedsichthys, but
several predators could have inflicted fatal damage, leaving this
defenceless giant to die slowly from its wounds.
Despite
its name the Leedsichthys doesn't really have any connections with
our city - it was first found late in the 1800s by Alfred Leeds,
a farmer and avid collector of the fossils in and around Oxford.
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