Have you ever wondered what the biggest animal on Earth is? The answer is the blue whale! This majestic creature has held the record for being the largest animal to have ever existed for many centuries, and it’s not hard to see why. Let’s take a look at this incredible mammal and find out why it is so special.
The Facts about the Blue Whale
If you thought elephants were big, then think again. Blue whales can grow up to 30 meters long, that’s three times as long as an elephant! Weighing in at nearly 200 tons, these animals are truly giants of the sea.
In fact, they’re so big that their tongues alone can weigh around 2.7 tons. That means if you were brave enough to stand on a blue whale tongue, it would be like standing on two cars side by side!
The blue whale is also incredibly powerful; its heart alone can weigh 400lbs and be as large as a car! It pumps 10 tons of blood through its body every single day, which helps give these whales amazing stamina and strength.
They can dive more than 3km deep in search of food and stay underwater for up to 40 minutes without coming up for air. This makes them one of the most efficient creatures when it comes to managing oxygen consumption, it even helps reduce their metabolic rate while they’re diving!
What Do They Eat?
Blue whales mainly feed on krill, tiny crustaceans that live in huge swarms near Antarctica. A single adult blue whale can consume up to 4 tons of krill each day, truly astounding!
To help them eat this much food, blue whales have baleen plates in their mouths which act like a sieve, trapping small fish or krill while letting water pass through them. They also produce powerful jets of water from their blowholes which help them filter out more krill from the seawater around them.
Despite being incredibly large, blue whales are quite gentle animals with an impressive ability to find food in huge quantities without expending too much energy. Weighing more than 200 tons and growing up to 30 meters long makes them one of the most remarkable creatures roaming our planet.
The Biggest Animals in the Air
The largest animal in flight is, unsurprisingly, the albatross. It has an impressive wingspan of up to 3.5 meters (11 feet) and can weigh up to 14 kilograms (30 pounds). This huge bird can soar for hours without flapping its wings and can travel around 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) on a single trip.
The Biggest Animals on Land
The title for largest land animal goes to none other than the African elephant. These gentle giants can reach heights of up 4 meters (13 feet) and can weigh up to 6 tons (12,000 pounds)! Despite their size and power, elephants are incredibly loving and social animals. They often live in herds with their families and have been known to show emotion when separated from each other.
The Biggest Animals To Have Ever Existed
When it comes to size, it doesn’t get much bigger than dinosaurs! The longest dinosaur ever found was Diplodocus hallorum which stretched a whopping 27 meters (88 feet) long!
As if that wasn’t impressive enough, scientists believe that there were two other species of dinosaurs even larger, the Seismosaurus and Supersaurus! Unfortunately, these incredible creatures died out 65 million years ago so we will never get a chance to witness their full glory.
While there were some land dinosaurs much bigger than the land animals that we have today, the largest animal to have ever existed goes to the blue whale. It’s incredible that we get to witness these humongous creatures.