The Largest Organisms Ever

The world is full of creatures, both big and small, and when we think of the largest creatures on the planet, we typically think of elephants, whales and huge trees. However, what are some other extremely large creatures? What creatures tip the scales as the largest creatures ever and how many of these creatures are still around today? There are plenty of species that have existed throughout the world, and here are just a few of the largest.

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The heaviest animal that has ever lived lives today in the form of the Blue Whale. This huge animal surpasses even the dinosaurs for weight, but not in size. The largest recorded weight of the Blue Whale was 190 metric tons, while it measured at 98 feet. However, larger whales have been measured as long as 109 feet. The largest living mammal is the African Bush Elephant, whose young will weigh as much as 220 pounds at birth. The largest recorded elephant was one that was shot in Angola. It weighed 24,000 pounds, and had a length from trunk to tail of 33 feet, with a shoulder height of 13 feet.

The largest rodent in the world is the capybara, which is native to the area east of the Andes in South America. It grows to 190 pounds, three feet high and five feet long. However, the largest known rodent to ever live was Josephoartigasia Monesi, which grew to 10 feet long and five feet tall, while weighing as much as one ton.

In terms of primates, the largest living primate is the Eastern Lowland Gorilla, which grows to the size of 500 pounds and six feet tall. The largest known primate to ever live was the Gigantopithecus, which grew to 10 feet tall, weighed as much as 1,200 pounds and lived hundreds of thousands of years ago in India and China. Humans may pale in comparison to that, even though in terms of weight, people can get pretty large. An example of this is Jon Brower, who was the heaviest human in history, weighing in at 1,400 pounds. The tallest human ever recorded was Robert Wadlow, who pushed eight feet 11 inches. In the world today, humans are the tallest known living primates.

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The largest living reptile right now is the saltwater crocodile, which grows to an average of about 17 feet long. However, one has been confirmed to be 20 feet long, and weight over 3,000 pounds. While there are unconfirmed reports of longer crocodiles, it is believed the species cannot grow past 23 feet, which is the largest known specimen. This is only half the size of the largest known reptiles though, also members of the crocodile family. Deinosuchus could grow up to 40 feet in length, and weight 10 tones, while Rhamphosuchus could grow to 60 feet.

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Naturally, dinosaurs were some of the largest creatures ever to walk the planet and when we think of large creatures, we think of these mammoth animals. The largest group of dinosaurs to ever live on land were the Saurapods, with the largest of those being Giraffatitan. This dinosaur was 38 feet tall and weight roughly 65 metric tons. The longest of the dinosaurs was Diplodocus, which measured 82 feet long. These are based on complete skeletons, but there are other Saurapods that are based off of incomplete skeletons. Argentinosaurus weighed in at 110 tons, and Supersaurus measured 112 feet long, while Sauroposeidon stood at 60 feet tall. Amphicoelias Fragillimus may have measured 200 feet long, but the only known fossil of the dinosaur was lost.