Largest Animals (Past and Present)

I've had tons of fun researching 10 Most interesting animals (you probably haven't heard of) and 20 Most Wacky Plants of the World. I started to wonder, what are the largest land, sea, and air animals of the world? Also, what are the largest animals historically? So I did some more research, and now I will share for your viewing pleasure.

Okay okay, you're thinking about stop reading already because you learned about elephants in elementary school. So to keep you interested, I will provide you with interesting facts about these creatures:

• The elephant is incredibly smart. It does have that memory that people talk about, Female matriarchs memorize water locations (They drink 190 liters a day)!
• Elephants have been known to have "funerals." If they find a fallen comrade they will all gather around it for awhile and touch the deceased with their trunks
• Also, they initiate their new young in similar "trunk touching" rituals
• They are related to manatees
• They eat 225 kg of food daily
• Babies normally weigh around 100 kg
• Humans are by far their main predators (some sad instances of this)
• They have no natural predators unless they are very young (mothers still protect them by sleeping in circles around their young)
• Young males have been known to kill rhinos (they're more aggressive)
• Conservationists have learned that angry bee noises can direct the African Bush Elephants away from populated areas
• They're pregnant for 22 months! Sorry mom!

Average weight: 18,500 lbs (approx. = 60 NFL defensive tackles)

Largest weight: 27,000 lbs (approx = 4,887,000 pennies)

Interesting note: The runner up, the Asia Elephant, weighs on average about 10,000 lbs less.

I grouped the dinosaurs known as Sauropods all as one winner here. They are huge. A couple of reasons why I grouped them all together: 1) There is one species that is the longest, and one is the heaviest. 2) There are unconfirmed, shady data that suggests that there are much, much bigger Sauropoda out there. Since all of these records have been broken since 1970, I would agree that there is a possibility of there being larger titans. Then again, the sauropods we know existed push the boundaries of conventional understandings of bodily functions like heart, diet, and life span.

Longest complete skeleton: Diplodocus

The Diplodocus is one of the best studied dinosaurs. What we know about them includes that they lived in North America. That means they could have once stood where Cydro is typing this article right now! Kind of exciting, I guess. The skeleton, along with many other dinosaur skeletons, has come from the Morrison Formation in the western United States.

Also, it had an ity-bity head for its size. The braincase of the skull is also rather small. Scientists calculated that it needed a 1.6 ton heart in order to pump blood through its neck. This lead other theorists to suggest that there might have been "auxiliary hearts" throughout its neck.

Length (avg): 88 ft. (172 dollar bills end to end)

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Heaviest terrestrial animal in history: Giraffatitan

Hey Cydro, that looks like someone just put combined the word "giraffe" with the word "titan." That's exactly what it is. This is a titanic dinosaur that looks like a giraffe.

Unlike the Diplodocus, the Giraffatiten lived in the seasonal African wetlands. According to Wikipedia, if the Giraffatitan was cold blooded, it would have taken 100 years to reach full size. If it was warm blooded, it would have taken about 10.

If it was warm-blooded, scientists have trouble explaining how blood could reach the head. Again, the heart would have to be incredibly large, or there would have to be multiple hearts. Also, its diet would have to include about 400 lbs of food per day if it was warm-blooded. This seems rather incredible, but then again something has to explain its size.

Weight: Current estimate place it around 60,000 lbs (approx. = 46,154 squirrels)

The Blue Whale is the largest known sea creature, past and present. Also worth noting is that it is the largest creature known of all time. One has to keep in mind that there aren't too many fossil expeditions at the bottom of the ocean, so if a larger sea creature did exist, it's possible we don't know about it. Anyway, I'll stop taking away all the glory from the Blue Whale. Like the African Bush Elephant, I'll stick to interesting facts:

• Lung Capacity of 5000 liters
• Tongues can weigh as much as an elephant
• 4 tons of krill a day...which totals to 40 million of them
• Can be injured or killed by collisions with ships...sonar use also messes with their communication
• Also have been known to have wounds from whales and sharks (mostly Orcas)
• Scientists can infer age by examining earwax...the oldest was 110 years
• Mouth can hold 99 tons of water
• Babies begin at 3 tons
• Gain 200 lbs a day during infancy
• Blue whales are loud. Can hear each other at an estimated 1,000 miles away. Also they possibly use their call for sonar.
• Swim at 5 mph most of the time, 20 mph at the maximum

Whale populations from earliest recorded history are estimated to be about 275,000 worldwide. They then dipped to as low as 650 due to whaling. After an international treaty in 1966, they were protected. Since they have slowly climbed to slightly under 5,000. There is some evidence that 5,000 is an underestimate.

Weight: up to 400,000 lbs (or 700 average sized pianos)

Length: up to 98 ft (or about 31 mens' 3 irons)

Birds come in all different shapes and sizes. The ostrich, for example, is the largest bird by far. It can't fly, however, so I won't spend much time on them. I only paid attention to two categories: weight and wingspan.

Heaviest flying organism alive today: Kori Bustard

• Has a cool name
• Lives in Africa
• Bee eaters hang out on their backs and eat the insects that fly up when the Kori Bustard is walking through the tall grass (which is kind of funny)
• Females are smaller than males by 20%
• Males mate with many females, don't take care of the young

Average weight: 27 lbs (1,234 #2 pencils)

Largest recorded weight: 44 lbs (5.71 Xbox 360s)

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Largest wingspan of any flying organism alive today: Wandering Albatross

• Breeds on islands in the Southern Hemisphere
• Can travel 22 feet horizontally for every 1 foot of drop
• Can stay in the air for days and weeks at a time
• Is usually with its mate for life
• 30% of their young survive the fledgling stage

Average wingspan of adult: 10 ft (can dunk a basketball without jumping)

Longer wingspans have been known to reach 12 ft (32 iPhone 4s end to end)

Quick note:

Sarus Crane is the tallest bird capable of flight

Andean Condor might be the largest bird when combining height, weight, and wingspan

"Everything is bigger in Texas" as they say. Guess where the remains of Quetzalcoatlus were found. By the way...if that name sounds familiar, its because it is named after the Aztec god.

It might be hard to wrap your head around how big these guys were. There is no current organism that shares the bone structure of these bad boys. For that reason weight estimates are highly disputable, and in addition their wing patterns could be very unique. If you saw one of these flying in the sky above you today, you'd probably run for your life.

If it could even fly at all. Some scientists don't think something that big could possibly fly. There have been many disputes over its weight and its diet. Some believe that it was like a vulture, however the beak is not in a shape that would suggest that. Some believe that it would skim the water for fish, but others say it has too much air drag for that.

Basically, we're all scratching our heads saying, "could that be real?"

Wingspan: 33-35 ft (146 paperclips end to end)

Weight: 150 lbs-550 lbs (Anywhere from 11,370 grapes to 14,667 hockey pucks)

• The Titanoboa would have put any snake alive today to shame. Its diet included prehistoric crocodiles. The reason that it was so big was because the tropics were very hot after the dinosaur extinction event. For the most details on the Titanoboa click here.
• The Archelon turtle was massive as well, and we've only found a few fossils of it. It's about 13 ft tall and 16 ft wide.
• The Elephant Bird was probably the largest bird to ever have existed.