Many people struggle to make sense of the incredible diversity of creatures on Earth, which includes not only the familiar birds, reptiles, and mammals but also viruses, bacteria, protists, invertebrates, trees, and fungi.
From a massive (by microscopic standards) virus to an enormous (by anyone’s means) clonal colony of trees, with all your favorite whales, elephants, and anacondas in between, the following photographs will take you on a guided tour of the giant species on Earth. So Here’s our list of Largest Living Things On Earth:
10. The Lion’s Mane Jellyfish (100 Feet Long)
The largest of all jellyfish is the Lion’s Mane. The lion’s mane jellyfish is the blue whale of the jellyfish world, with a bell that may reach a diameter of six feet and tentacles that can stretch more than 100 feet.
However, despite its massive size, the lion’s mane jellyfish is not very dangerous (a healthy person may readily survive a sting). It performs a crucial ecological role as a gathering place for fish and crustaceans. The leatherback turtle, another large species on this list, relies heavily on lion’s mane jellyfish as a source of nutrition.
9. The Giant Barrel Sponge (6 Feet High)
It introduces the world’s most enormous sponge, the Giant Barrel Sponge. The gigantic barrel sponge is not only a giant living sponge but also one of the longest-living invertebrate organisms on the planet, with some individuals living for over a thousand years.
Xestospongia muta is a filter feeder like many other sponges, taking in water via its sides, filtering out delicious bacteria, and releasing trash through its large top.
Symbiotic cyanobacteria produce this giant sponge’s red coloring; like the corals with which it shares its reef environment, it may be “bleached” from time to time by ecological disturbances.
8. Rafflesia, the World’s Largest Flowering Plant (25 Pounds)
As far as floral plants go, the Rafflesia takes the cake. It would help if you didn’t put Rafflesia in your garden since its gigantic, three-foot-wide flowers give out a stench similar to that of rotting flesh, which draws in the insects that help spread its pollen.
The Rafflesia flower does not have any branches, leaves, or roots, but it also relies on the vines of another plant species, tetra stigma, to thrive.
Unfortunately for everyone else, Rafflesia is only found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines; it’s unlikely that you’d come across it in the wilds of New Jersey.
7. Japanese Spider Crab is the largest known arthropod (25 Pounds)
This is the Japanese Spider Crab, the largest arthropod in the world. The Japanese spider crab, which resembles a face-hugger from the “Alien” films, is a massive arthropod with very long legs.
This invertebrate’s legs may grow over 6 feet long, dwarfing its foot-long stem. Its speckled, orange-and-white exoskeleton helps it blend in with its surroundings and avoid being eaten by more giant marine predators.
Like many strange animals, the Japanese spider crab is considered a delicacy in Japan, but it has recently disappeared from sushi menus in response to criticism from environmentalists.
6. Goliath Frog, the Largest Species of Amphibian (5 Pounds)
As its name implies, the Goliath Frog is the largest in the world. In addition to the Goliath beetle and the Goliath bird eater, the Goliath frog of west-central Africa is another example of the trend of naming large creatures after biblical figures.
Despite its size, the Goliath frog is vegetarian and only eats Dicraeia warming, a rare aquatic plant that may be found at the edges of rapids and waterfalls.
The most giant known frog, the “devil frog” Beelzebub from late Cretaceous Madagascar, weighed ten times as much as the Goliath frog, which weighs an average of five pounds.
5. The African Giant Earthworm (2-3 Pounds)
The largest worm in the world is the Giant Earthworm. If you’re not a fan of worms, you may be disappointed to find that there are more than six kinds of gigantic earthworms.
The African giant earthworm, Macrochaeta’s rappi, is the biggest of these creatures, reaching up to 6 feet in length and weighing as much as a medium-sized snake.
Giant earthworms may be larger than their smaller counterparts. Still, they pose no threat to people or other animals since they prefer to remain hidden in the mud, where they may feast on decomposing leaves and other organic waste without being disturbed.
4. The Goliath beetle is a giant insect known (3-4 Ounces)
Goliath beetles are the giant beetles in the world. The Goliath beetle, or Goliaths for short, is the most prominent member of the beetle family and weighs as much as a fully grown gerbil, so it’s probably for the best that it’s never seen in the wild anywhere but Africa’s tropical woodlands.
The Goliath beetle may be the largest in the world, but this distinction comes with a huge caveat: the larval stage of this insect is twice as massive as the adult stage.
To keep your Goliath beetle healthy and happy, experts recommend (really) a diet of commercially available wet or dry dog or cat food.
The Goliath bird eater, found only in South America, is distantly related to the Goliath beetle but is nevertheless the giant arachnid in the world at around a third of a pound when fully grown.
Female Goliaths need at least three years to reach sexual maturity, and they may live up to 25 years in the wild, making them roughly as old as the typical house cat.
Males don’t get devoured by females after mating as they do in other spider species, but they only live for about half as long as females, at three to six years.
3. The Giant Amoeba (3 Millimeters Long)
An illustration of the Giant Amoeba, the largest amoeba in the world. The enormous amoeba’s genus name, “Chaos,” is unusual; it likely alludes to the undulations that constantly occur in the cytoplasm of this single-celled organism and the fact that it has hundreds of individual nuclei.
Although the gigantic amoeba is only about 3 millimeters in length, it is nevertheless visible to the naked eye and capable of (slowly) absorbing and digesting smaller multicellular animals in addition to its typical diet of bacteria and protists.
2. Thiomargarita (Bacteria of the largest size: 0.5 Millimeters Wide)
The giant known bacteria is called Thiomargarita. Thiomargarita may sound like a cocktail, but the name comes from the Greek for “Sulphur pearl,” which refers to the granules of Sulphur incorporated in this bacterium’s cytoplasm (which give it a lustrous appearance) and the roundish this margarita’s tendency to link up in long, pearl-like chains as it divides.
The half-millimeter-wide, this margarita may be the only bacterium in the world that can be seen with the naked eye. Yet, it is entirely safe for humans and other animals since it is a “lithotroph,” meaning it feeds on inert chemicals on the ocean bottom.
1. The Pithovirus, Its Largest Virus (1.5 Micrometers Long)
A giant virus in the world is the Pithovirus. While researchers may disagree on whether or not viruses qualify as living entities, there’s no denying that the Pithovirus is an absolute behemoth, measuring in at a whopping 1.5 millionths of a meter in length, a complete 50% longer than the previous record-holder, Pandoravirus.
One may assume that a disease as significant as the Pithovirus would instead target larger hosts such as elephants, hippopotamuses, or even humans. Rest assured, the Pithovirus feeds instead on amoebas that are just slightly larger than itself.
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