The animal and plant world is so diverse that a person, even during the existence of so many years on Earth, never ceases to be surprised. Very small representatives of the fauna live on the planet, which can only be seen under a microscope. And there are, on the contrary, very large ones. And why they grow to such a size, one still has to guess.
Representative of the water element
The largest animal on Earth and in the deep ocean - a blue or blue whale - vomited. This is an animal from the order of mammals and the suborder of baleen whales.
The largest individuals can reach 33 meters in length, weighing over 200 tons. And the heart muscle of a whale can be compared with a car, and this is not less than 600 kilograms. A newborn male weighs from 2 to 3 tons, and the weight of the tongue of an adult reaches 2.7 tons. This is the largest animal on the planet that has ever been known to mankind, and which has been measured and weighed.
Today, vomit lives near the coasts of Russia, China, the USA, Iceland and a number of other countries. They prefer a solitary way of life, very rarely form pairs or gather inlarge groups.
These individuals feed on small mollusks and krill, which the whale has to eat about 1 ton to maintain strength. But the most unfortunate thing is that this animal is listed in the international Red Book.
Representative of the African savannah
The largest land animal in the world is the African Elephant. The largest individuals in length reach 7.5 meters with a height of 3.5 meters. Such large elephants weigh at least 7 tons. Average life expectancy is 60 to 70 years.
In their natural environment, adults have no enemies, but cubs often become prey to predators, they are attacked by crocodiles, leopards and hyenas.
According to the latest estimates, the population of this elephant is about 500 thousand individuals. However, even such an impressive figure made it possible to list the African elephant in the Red Book, since the man turned out to be the most terrible enemy for these animals. To this day, these animals continue to be hunted for ivory.
The world's largest marine predator
The largest animal that is a hunter is the southern elephant seal. Its unique feature is that it has extreme sexual dimorphism. Simply put, the females are much smaller than the males of the species. The largest recorded weight of a female is 900 kilograms, and the largest male weighs 4 tons. In length, females reach no more than 3.5 meters, males grow up to 6.5 meters.
Elephant seal classified as realseals, has wrinkled skin, with hard and fine fur. The process of molting in these animals is quite difficult. While the old hair peels off, the skin becomes blistered. The whole process lasts for 1.5 months. During this period, elephants do nothing, do not eat, but simply lie on land. As soon as new skin appears all over the body, the emaciated beast immediately goes into the water.
Animals can stay under water for a long time, up to 2 hours in a row. The diet consists mainly of fish, mollusks and cephalopods. In the natural environment, it has an enemy - killer whale. Sea leopards "eat" babies. And the most basic enemy is a person who kills an animal in order to obtain fat. About 500 kilograms are collected from one individual. Today, according to approximate estimates, there are about 750 thousand individuals.
Largest land predator
The largest animal on land is the white polar bear. In height, the beast grows up to 3 meters and weighs at least 1 ton. They live in the Arctic and on the island of Svalbard. Some travelers claim that there are more bears on the island than people. They live relatively little, about 30 years. The bear feeds on arctic fox, bearded seal and walruses.
According to approximate estimates, the population is about 28 thousand, of which about 6 thousand are in Russia. To date, hunting for them is prohibited, however, poachers "do not sleep" and kill about 200 bears a year.
The largest reptile
The largest animal classified as a reptile -s altwater or nostril crocodile. In a number of sources it is also called combed. It lives in Northern Australia and in Southeast Asia, on the east coast of India. These are quite active predatory animals, they eat fish, small reptiles, amphibians, molluscs and crustaceans. However, it attacks any creature that violates the boundaries of its territory. If the attack occurs on land, then the crocodile immediately drags its victim into the water.
The minimum length of a crocodile is 4.1 meters, the maximum recorded is 6 meters. Average weight is 1 ton.
The largest amphibian
The largest amphibian is the Chinese giant salamander. The largest males reach a length of 1.8 meters. Found in mountain rivers and lakes in China. Today it is on the verge of extinction, as it can only live in clean and cool water, and there are fewer and fewer such places. However, man also contributed to the extinction of the species - amphibian meat is considered a delicacy.
Ancient and extinct species
What is the largest animal in the world existed millions of years ago? First of all, it is an amphicelia. It is a herbivorous dinosaur. The length of one vertebra of the animal reached 2.5 meters. They lived on the planet about 145 million years ago.
In second place is titanoboa. It is believed that this is the closest relative of the boa constrictor. Inhabited the planet Titanoboa approximately 58-61 million years ago. Its length was 13 meters. On a note,modern pythons do not grow more than 7.5 meters.
In third place is Megalodon. It was a predator that lived on Earth about 3-28 million years ago. The length of the shark could reach 20 meters, with an average weight of 47 tons. But the most interesting thing is that the bite force of a marine life is equal to a pressure of 10 tons.
