Items23The creator’s order
  1. 1Blue whaleBlue whaleNo other contender for the title has a record backed by whole bodies. The longest reliably measured blue whale was a female of 33.26 meters, and a 27.1-meter female weighed at least 136.4 tons, so the longest whales would have been heavier still. The often-quoted top weight is about 190…0
  2. 2PerucetusPerucetusThe ancient whale that briefly took the blue whale's crown. Announced in 2023 from 13 enormous vertebrae, four ribs and a hip bone dug from the desert on Peru's southern coast, it lived nearly 40 million years ago and was estimated at about 20 meters and 180 tons, within a range of 85 to 340. A…0
  3. 3LivyatanLivyatanThe predatory whale that answers megalodon. Livyatan is known from a skull about 3 meters long found in the coastal desert of southern Peru, in rocks 12 to 13 million years old, with teeth more than 36 centimeters long. From that skull its describers estimated a body of 13.5 to 17.5 meters, a…0
  4. 4IchthyotitanIchthyotitanLikely the largest marine reptile yet described, and possibly the closest any reptile came to blue whale length. Ichthyotitan is known from just two giant jawbones found on the Somerset coast in England, one at Lilstock in 2016 and one at Blue Anchor in 2020 by a father and his 11-year-old…0
  5. 5ArgentinosaurusArgentinosaurusThe usual answer to "biggest dinosaur," and one of the hardest to pin down. Its story began in 1987 on a farm near Plaza Huincul in Argentina's Neuquén Province, and the giant is still known only from incomplete remains, chiefly back vertebrae and parts of the hips. From those bones, estimates run…0
  6. 6PatagotitanPatagotitanA giant titanosaur from Patagonia that shows how dinosaur records shrink under scrutiny. When it was named in 2017, its describers estimated about 37 meters and 69 tons and suggested it outsized Argentinosaurus. A revised scaling method in 2020 slimmed it to around 57 tons, and its full length…0
  7. 7MegalodonMegalodonThe largest predatory shark known, and a case study in estimating an animal from teeth and backbone. Because shark skeletons are cartilage, megalodon survives mostly as teeth and the occasional vertebral column. One such column from Belgium, about 11 meters of spine, implies an individual around…0
  8. 8Whale sharkWhale sharkThe largest fish alive, and the useful living yardstick for every extinct shark claim. Females average around 14 meters and can weigh about 18 tons, and reported maximum lengths vary widely depending on who measured and how, with figures near 18 meters among the larger ones quoted. Seeing a whale…0
  9. 9LeedsichthysLeedsichthysThe largest bony fish known, a plankton-straining giant of the Middle Jurassic seas about 165 million years ago. Its skeleton survives poorly, often as isolated fragments, and earlier size claims were dismissed by later researchers as historical arm-waving. A 2013 study read growth rings inside…0
  10. 10Palaeoloxodon namadicusPalaeoloxodon namadicusA possible largest land mammal ever, resting on very little bone. A 2015 study of elephant body size scaled this extinct elephant from fragmentary limb bones, including part of a femur, to about 16 feet at the shoulder and 22 to 24 tons, which would put it more than 5 tons above the biggest known…0