Mammalia
Theria
Eutheria
Laurasiatheria
Artiodactyla
Whippomorpha
Cetacea
Basilosauridae
Late Eocene
Egypt and Jordan
12 - 20 m
This ancient predatory whale's strange name comes from the fact that its bones were initially thought to belong to some sort of enormous non-avian sauropsid (reptile for those less cladistically inclined).
February 28th, 2015
UPDATE: Shortly after I published this post, a new paper came out showing that Basilosaurus had the strongest bite force of any known mammal (over 3,600 pounds at its upper third premolar), enough to break open the skulls of juvenile Dorudon, another (smaller) ancient whale.
Source: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118380
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