What is the largest modern animal on earth? place. Blue or blue whale. Tallest animal on earth
Our world is full of amazing animals, big and small, short and tall. In this article, we will look at 15 of the world's largest animals, classified into various categories such as mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, etc.
The largest living animal is the Blue Whale
The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is marine mammals. At 30 meters in length and 180 tons or more in weight, it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The Blue Whale's tongue weighs approximately 2.7 tons, the size of an average Indian elephant, and its heart weighs approximately 600 kg and is the largest known in any animal. Not only is it the size of a heart blue whale Comparable to a Mini Cooper, but it's also comparable in weight.
Peregrine falcon, the fastest bird
To the question what is the fastest animal on the planet? Most people react spontaneously to a cheetah. However, this is only the fastest "terrestrial" animal: other species are capable of performance that is at least as impressive. However, in terms of speed, this koshag has many other competitors.
The world of insects: a butterfly is as fast as a cheetah
In the air, the name is much less contested: there is simply no animal that can compete with the peregrine falcon. Considering its size, which usually ranges between 4 and 5 centimeters, this is quite a record. This is the largest animal in the gopher family. Its average weight ranges from 10 to 18 kg, and figures of 30 kg are observed. It can reach 90 cm in length to a height of 30 cm at the withers. It is easily recognized by its gray back, black belly and black and white head. His short legs are completely black, his small bushy tail is white, and his ears are black with white tips.
The heaviest land animal in the world: African elephant
The African Elephant is the largest living land animal. With males reaching 6 - 7.5 meters in length and 3.3 meters in height, and weighing 6 tons. Female elephants are much smaller, reaching 5.4 - 6.9 meters in length, 2.7 meters in height, weighing 3 tons. African elephant there are no natural enemies at all because of it big size, but cubs (especially newborns) are vulnerable to attacks by lions and crocodile, and (rarely) to attacks by leopards and hyenas.
Each foot has 5 toes with more developed claws on the front paws. There is a strong protrusion above the skull, which is the sagittal ridge, which develops with age. has 34 teeth, including 18 on the lower part of the jaw and 16 on the upper part.
Distribution and habitat of this mustelid
Note: The female is the same size as the male and is called a badger and little ones. The badger has 5 toes with claws on each of its feet. Note that the claws of the hind legs are shorter than those of the front legs. It can be found almost throughout Europe and Asia.
Tallest land animal in the world: Giraffe
The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African artiodactyl mammal and the tallest terrestrial animal. It reaches 5-6 meters in height and has an average weight of 1,600 kg for males and 830 kg for females. The giraffe has an extremely elongated neck, reaching more than 2 m in length, accounting for almost half the vertical height of the animal. The long neck results from disproportionate lengthening of the cervical spine.
It lives in completely different conditions, even if it prefers dense forests with dense undergrowth in low and high altitudes, and also often visits meadows, clearings, agricultural areas, and sometimes even found even in large parks cities. They usually avoid areas that are too wet, even though they like to have a water point nearby.
Lifestyle of the European badger
Like the fox, it is a nocturnal and crepuscular animal that is reserved and timid. It is very cautious and spends its days in its burrow, only coming out in the evening to feed itself. It is opportunistic and omnivorous. Its diet consists of worms, amphibians, insects, carrion, small mammals such as voles, small rabbits and moles, but is also vegetarian and eats mushrooms, bulbs, fruits, corn, wheat and clover.
The largest carnivores in the world: Southern elephant seal
The southern elephant seal is the largest carnivore alive today. The size of these seals varies many times between males and females, perhaps more than any other mammal. Males are typically five to six times heavier than females. While the average weight of females is 400 - 900 kilograms, and the length is from 2.6 to 3 meters, males usually weigh from 2,200 to 4,000 kilograms.
Ocean sunfish
Typically solitary, it can sometimes live in small family communities when there are sufficient resources in its territory. In order to communicate, there is a huge variety of calls, such as grunts, barks, purrs or even whistles. This animal does not hibernate, but its activity is greatly reduced in harsh winters or consumes its fat reserves and can lose up to 3 kg over the winter.
Sexual maturity does not occur very quickly, since only from 2 years are they of reproductive age. Coupling occurs in early spring, and the peculiarity of the species is that the fertilized egg will remain “on hold” for 10 months before joining the uterus, this is called delayed implantation. Only at the end of the 5th week of existence will the milk teeth grow and the eyes open.
Largest land carnivores in the world: White polar bear and Kodiak bear
The largest land carnivores are Polar bear(Ursus maritimus) and the Kodiak bear, a subspecies of brown bear. Since their body sizes are approximately the same, it is not clear which bear is definitively larger. Their height exceeds 1.6 meters, and their total length reaches 3 meters. The heaviest recorded polar and brown bears weighed 1.003 kg and 1.135 kg, respectively.
Progressive weaning starts at 12 weeks and ends around 4 or 5 months. will remain with their mother for the first year of life. It is noted that the life expectancy is 14 years in the natural environment, even though records were recorded at 16 years of age. Unfortunately, 50% of young people die within their first year.
Blue whale - giant of giants
There is no special protective measure as it is not considered a threat. It was tormented as a rabies vector and persecuted in the second half of the twentieth century. It has disappeared from its native range due to hunting and trapping. The destruction and degradation of its natural environment are also factors in population decline.
Largest reptile in the world: Saltwater crocodile
Saltwater crocodile(Crocodylus porosus) is the largest of all living reptiles. It can be found in suitable habitats from Northern Australia before South-East Asia And east coast India. The weight of an adult male saltwater crocodile is 409 - 1,000 kilograms, and the length usually ranges from 4.1 to 5.5 meters. However, mature males can exceed 6 meters and weigh more than 1,000 kilograms. This species is the only one in existence that regularly reaches and exceeds 4.8 meters in length. The saltwater crocodile is an exceptional predator, capable of attacking almost any animal that invades its territory, whether in water or on land.
About 60 million years ago, at the end of the Paleocene, reptiles were the dominant creatures on Earth. This giant turtle was found fossilized in Colombia in the Cerrejon mine. 
At a time when there were no land animals, this predator was the only creature of that time to live under and above water. 
Andrewsarchus is a kind of carnivore and is known to be the largest land-based carnivorous mammal to ever exist. Its skull is 6 feet long and 1 meter long, weighs up to 1 ton and feeds on the large herbivores with which it shares its environment.
The largest amphibian in the world: the Chinese giant salamander
Chinese giant salamander(Andrias davidianus) is the largest salamander in the world, reaching a length of 180 cm. Although they rarely reach that size today, as they are often eaten. Found in rocky mountain streams and lakes in China, the salamander is critically endangered due to habitat loss, pollution and overharvesting, as its meat is considered a delicacy and is used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Liviyatan is an extinct species of modern sperm whale, measured between 13 and 17 meters and lived about 13 million years ago. This predator had a diet consisting of large fish and even other species of whales. It rivaled and surpassed in size the great Megalodon.
It is comparable in size to a giraffe, with a wingspan of 15 meters and a skull over 3 meters long. It was a descendant of pterodactyls and hunted with its long, toothless jaws. Its legs were very long, and its neck was up to 3 meters long and had a pointed beak. However, his wings were quite short, which did not prevent him from flying.
Largest Rabbit/Hare in the world: Flemish Giant
The Flemish Giant is an old breed of domesticated rabbit originating from the Flemish region. They were bred as early as the 16th century around the city of Ghent, Belgium. Rabbits can weigh up to 12.7 kg
This animal lived in the Upper Cretaceous in North America about 66 million years ago. 
To survive, this mastodon feeds on large animals such as crocodiles or alligators. This snake fossil dates back to the Paleocene between 60 and 58 million years ago.
It was discovered in the Cerrejon coal mine, which is located in the department of La Guajira in Colombia. 
Smilodon was one of the largest cats of its time, reaching 500 kilograms. To feed himself, he hunted in a pack on the plains South America. These extremely strong front legs, sharp claws and famous 30 cm long fangs allowed it to attack large prey such as bison, horses and even mammoths.
The Largest Bats in the World: The Giant Flying Golden-crowned Fox
Most great view bats - The giant golden-crowned flying fox (Acerodon jubatus), an endangered fruit bat from tropical forests Philippine, which is part of the megabat family. The maximum size is believed to be closer to 1.5 kg. weight, and 55 cm in length, and the wingspan can be almost 1.8 meters. The common great flying fox (Pteropus vampyrus) is smaller in body mass and length, but exceeds the golden-crowned species in wingspan. Specimens reached a span of up to two meters.
Its long legs had three toes, armed with claws capable of causing serious wounds. It had dense plumage and a long neck, but its main characteristic was its impressive hooked beak located in the upper jaw. The two claws on its wings also helped it to capture its prey. 
It was about 10 meters. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that it had a certain structure in the form of a circular saw in the lower jaw. This one, longer than the upper jaw, had a spiral growth pattern with many rows of teeth.
The largest rodent in the world: Capybara, or guinea pig
Most big rodent- capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), an inhabitant of most tropical and temperate parts of eastern South America and the Andes, living near water. Adult capybaras can reach 1.5 meters in length and 0.9 meters in height at maximum weight at 105.4 kilograms. This is a very social species and gets along easily with humans.
Scientists theorized that it fed on ammonites and that its teeth were specialized to open the shell of these cephalopods. It was between 11 and 14 meters long and weighed about 10 tons. This is one of the largest of all crocodiles that has ever existed on Earth. Nicknamed the "Emperor of Crocodiles," this impressive reptile lived 110 million years ago in the Lower Cretaceous. One might reasonably think that Sarkoshukh had little reason to be afraid of other predatory dinosaurs. This crocodile is believed to reach its adult size at the age of 50 or 60 years.
Largest bony fish in the world: Ocean sunfish
Osteichthyes, or bony fish, are a taxonomic group of fish that have a bony, as opposed to cartilaginous, skeleton. This is an extremely diverse and rich group of fish, consisting of more than 29,000 species, and the largest class of vertebrates in existence.
It is one of the three longest arthropods that have ever existed. It lived about 390 million years ago and ate fish. 
It is a distant relative of the arthropods that measured the size of the large crocodile. His diet was primarily vegetarian, but he may have carnivorous tendencies. 
It ate sea scorpions and trilobites.
The largest animals in the world
Her main weapon was her beak, which allowed her to crush any shell. 
Meganeura was a giant dragonfly, about 70 cm long, weighing at least 0.15 kg. This is one of the largest insects that has ever existed on Earth. It was a predator that likely fed other insects and small amphibians that it caught in its bite, while true dragonflies use their feet. 
Its name means "crocodile boar" in reference to its unusually tall boar-like tusks.
The largest bony fish is the widespread ocean sunfish (Mola mola). It resembles the head of a fish with a tail, and its main part is smoothed from the side. A mature ocean sunfish has an average length of 1.8 meters, a fin-to-fin length of 2.5 meters and an average weight of 1,000 kilograms. There were fish up to 3.3 meters in length, weighing up to 2,300 kg.
His main feature was to hunt in water and on land. It had a reinforced muzzle to take big hits. This carnivore lived during the Upper Cretaceous. Edestus was an impressive shark that spanked about 7 meters in length. It was one of the great predators of the Carboniferous Seas. His teeth did not fall, new teeth pushed the old ones out of his mouth, still connected to the jaw like a monstrous pair of scissors.
Some researchers attribute it to a size of three meters, which would make it the largest anthropoid ever to exist. It would have weighed between 300 and 550 kg and would have been comparable in jaw size to a gorilla or orangutan. 
The jaw of this animal was twice as tall as that of the great white shark of today.
Largest snake: Green Anaconda
The most massive reptile in the world is the Green Anaconda (Eunectes murinus). The maximum recorded size is 7.5 meters in length and 250 kg in weight, although rumors of larger anacondas are widespread. The python (Python reticulatus) of Southeast Asia is longer, but much lighter, reaching a length of as much as 9.7 meters.
The largest bird in the world: Ostrich
The largest bird is the ostrich (Struthio camelus), an inhabitant of the plains of Africa and Arabia. A large male ostrich can reach a height of 2.8 m, weighing over 156 kg. The eggs laid by an ostrich can weigh 1.4 kg and are the largest eggs in the world. They can also run at top speeds of approximately 97.5 km/h, making the ostrich also the fastest bird on earth and the fastest bipedal animal in the world.
The heaviest flying bird in the world: Dalmatian pelican
The Dalmatian Pelican (Pelecanus crispus) is a member of the pelican family. Distributed from southeastern Europe to India and China in swamps and small lakes. It is the largest of the pelicans, averaging 160-180 cm in length, 11-15 kg in weight and just over 3 m in wingspan. Dalmatian pelicans are the heaviest flying bird species in the world on average, although great bustards and swans can exceed the pelican in maximum weight.
The largest arthropod in the world: Japanese spider crab
The Japanese spider crab is a species of sea crab that lives in the waters around Japan. Its length is greater than that of any arthropod, reaching up to 3.8 meters and weighing up to 19 kg. In its natural habitat, the Japanese spider crab feeds on shellfish and can live for 100 years.
What are the largest animals in the world? It would seem, what practical benefit does such information have? Well, okay, it’s still clear if we talk about modern animals. You never know, maybe you'll meet somewhere in wildlife, so at least you know who will eventually eat you or trample you. But why does an ordinary person need to know about those animals that became extinct a long time ago? But no, the thirst for knowledge is gnawing...
Well, let's figure out which giants existed on our planet, and some still exist...
The largest animals in the world
Sarcosuchus
Sarcosuchus is the most big crocodile ever existed on Earth. In addition to fish, this “crocodile”’s diet also included dinosaurs. This one lived with modern look in Africa just over 100 million years ago. Sarcosuchus's head alone was 2 meters long! A person could fit entirely into such a mouth. Yes, modern crocodiles are just babies compared to Sarcosuchus. From “tip to ... tip” (I almost said “tailbone”), the extinct crocodile was 12 meters! And it weighed more than 6 tons.
Sarcosuchus video
Gigantoraptor
What other epithet should I give this cute animal? It looks like a bird, but it doesn’t fly, but it’s definitely a dinosaur. Gigantoraptor lived almost 80 million years ago, in Asia, on the territory of modern China. The length of such a half-bird was 8 meters and its weight was 2 tons. Now it’s clear why it didn’t work out to take off.
Gigantoraptor video
Brontoscorpio
Almost a meter long. It's good that it died out, the infection. Now it would only be possible to crush something like this with a tank. Brontoscorpio lived as much as 400 million years ago (what terrible numbers!). Fossils were discovered in Great Britain. Apparently this monster became the prototype of the “riding” scorpions in the film “Clash of the Titans”.
Brontoscorpio video
Cameroceras
The same age as the brontoscorpion. The shell of this monster reached ten meters. And if you add tentacles, then Cameroceras could be all 12 meters long. By the way, at that time, in the depths of the ocean, this predator had no natural enemies. Such a “king of the bottom” turns out to be
Gigantopithecus
4 meters tall in the world. This “baby’s” teeth were 3 centimeters long. Chinese traders called these teeth “dragon teeth.” The mass of the ancient King Kong was about 500 kilograms and, as scientists say, this is not the final figure.
Gigantopithecus video
Josephoartigasia
Inhabited on Earth not so long ago: just some 3 million years ago. Such a mouse could rival the size of a bison. Judge for yourself: height 1.5 meters, length 3 meters, weight 2 tons. Josephoartigasia is the largest herbivore in South America at the time.
Pelagornis
In the world of all times. The wingspan of the feathered monster was almost 8 meters! For comparison, the modern albatross has 2 times less. Scientists managed to describe Pelagornis quite recently, just a couple of years ago.
Eotriceratops
Lived in North America 60 million years ago. The head of Eotriceratops was 3 meters long, and the total length was 9 meters. This little animal weighed 14 tons.
Arctotherium
Arctotherium is a bear that lived in South America “yesterday” - 10 thousand years ago. The height of this bear is 4 meters, and its weight is 2 tons. This is where it was, a paradise for hunters.
Shastasaurus
21 meters long and weighing 75 tons. Shastasaurus lived on Earth, or rather in water, 200 million years ago.
Meganeura
Half a meter long with a wingspan of 0.7 meters. Considering that dragonflies are the fastest creatures on the planet, imagine such a prehistoric monster in flight. Horrible! This one will easily knock you off your feet or buzz to death. But it’s good that such an animal lived 300 million years ago.
Arthropleura
A vile creature with 60 legs whose life period ended almost 300 million years ago. The length of the arthropleura was just over 2.5 meters, and the weight was as much as 500 kilograms.
Eurypterid
They don’t “produce” these kind of things now. But in vain! It's perfect for beer. Racoscoripon existed 400 million years ago. It weighed relatively little - 30 kilograms, but was 2.5 meters long.
Titanoboa
In the world, which lived almost in the same place where Anaconda now lives, the most big snake modernity. The largest snake is 50 million years old. The length of Titanoboa reached 15 meters, that is, almost twice the size of the largest snake of our days. The diameter was 1 meter, and it weighed a ton.
Spinosaurus
Spinosaurus is the largest predator that ever walked the earth. Here it is, a killing machine: length 18 meters, weight 10 tons and a mouth full of huge teeth. True, the expiration date has long passed - 90 million years ago. Remember that debate about who is cooler - Tyrannosaurus or Spinosaurus? "Jurassic Park" put everything in its place.
Megalodon
This giant shark reached 20 meters in length and weighed 60 tons. It’s scary to watch such a fish even on a TV screen - this is an example. Megalodon is definitely one of the TOP large predators throughout the history of the Earth.
Leedsichthys
Leedsichthys is the largest of the bony fish. Length – 24 meters, weight – 50 tons. One such “herring” could feed an entire country. The pity went extinct 160 million years ago.
Indricotherium
This ancestor of rhinoceroses lived quite recently - 20 million years ago. The height of the idricotherium reached 8 meters, that is, it could easily look into the window of the third floor of a standard panel house. This proto-rhino weighed 20 tons.
Quetzalcoatlus
The wingspan is 12 meters with a height of 6 meters. Power in the skies! However, the mass “didn’t reach” - only 250 kilograms. However, it is very likely that Quetzalcoatlus (or rather, some kind of “mixture” of it with a parrot) served as the inspiration for the creation of Leonopteryx in the movie “Avatar”.
Blue whale
The blue whale is the largest aquatic animal and it lives in our time. Well, at least somehow we wiped the nose of the prehistoric world! The blue whale is 33 meters long and weighs 150 tons or even more.
Amphicelia
Amphicelia is the largest land animal. Here he is - the monster of monsters! Weight is more than 155 tons, and length is 62 (!) meters. That is, 2 times longer than a blue whale! This is the biggest animal of all time!