If there is a general lesson to be learned from the prehistoric bestiaries of our children’s libraries, it is this: if you want to go extreme, go prehistoric. If you are curious about, say, the largest land animal that ever existed on Earththen you shouldn’t be surprised—or disappointed—to hear that it’s an extinct species.
Titans from the past: the Titanosaurs
To determine the largest animal ever (on the condition that it was the largest animal) country (When we look at the age of the largest dinosaurs, we have to go back to the time of the largest dinosaurs, specifically the ridiculously large clade of giant sauropods, the titanosaurs, which lived over 66 million years ago.)
But which of these quadrupeds with their long necks and tails was really the largest?
As you might expect, here we confront the inherent incompleteness of the fossil record. Just because a scale-shredding sauropod existed doesn’t mean it died in exactly the right circumstances to be fossilized, let alone discovered by a paleontologist and starred in a Hollywood blockbuster by Chris Pratt.
3 Contenders Among Titanosaurs
While we do have fossil evidence of a giant dinosaur, we don’t necessarily have enough to accurately calculate body mass or length. In many cases, some potential contenders exist today as just a few bones, complicating the story.
1. Amphicoelias fragillimus
Amphicoelias fragillimus could have been an astonishing 190 feet (58 meters) from nose to tail, but the only incomplete fossil specimen turned up in the tumultuous world of bone-hunting in the late 19th century has been missing for decades. All we have now are sketches.
2. Artgentinosaurus
Proponents of Argentinosaurus have declared this estimated 77-ton (78,235-kilogram) sauropod the largest dinosaur, but it all depends on just half a dozen fossilized vertebrae.
3. Dreadnoughtus schrani
In 2014, paleontologists at Drexel University made a discovery that provides one of the strongest arguments for the largest land animal of all time. A 70 percent complete fossilized skeleton of the sauropod has been assembled, with estimates suggesting it would have been 85 feet (26 meters) and 65 tons (59 metric tons). Fittingly named after a type of battleship from the early 20th century, Dreadnoughtus schrani is said to have had a body the size of a house and a mass equal to that of an entire herd of elephants.
The Dangers of Paleontology: Ultrasaurus
As mentioned, the fossil record gives us a few species of well-documented titans and a large number of closely related species, whose fossils vary in completeness.
For example, the ambitiously named Ultrasaurus turned up in a fossil dig in South Korea in 1979, but was later found to be a chimeric creature – that is, it had been accidentally assembled from several fossil specimens.
The exception that proves the rule: blue whales
While the land animals of the distant past dwarf all modern species, it’s a different story for sea creatures. The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever existed, and luckily for us, it still exists (although it is endangered).
An adult blue whale can grow to be 75 feet (23 meters) to 100 feet (30.5 meters) long from head to tail, and can weigh as much as 150 tons (136 metric tons). Female blue whales are actually larger than males, and the largest specimen ever recorded was 98 feet (29.9 meters) long and weighed 219.4 tons (199 metric tons).
It’s really cool that you can see the statue of the blue whale hanging in the Museum of Natural History in New York and know that such majestic creatures share the planet with us.
Prehistoric Challenger: The Ichthyosaurs
You may have heard rumors that a large prehistoric sea creature rivaled the blue whale in size, and there’s some truth to that. It’s been suggested that one or more Shastasaurus ichthyosaurs (an extinct group of marine dinosaurs) were as large or larger, but so far this remains unconfirmed — and many scientists believe unlikely.
Largest land mammal
When it comes to the largest animals that are also mammals, a handful of contenders come from the eons of yore. In the Oligocene epoch, the Paraceratherium was a hornless, long-necked rhinoceros that weighed as much as the current record holder, the African elephant (Loxodonta species).
This enormous animal had an impressive shoulder height of 5 to 5.4 meters, surpassing the full length of 6 meters of the largest giraffe.
Much more information
Author’s Note: What is the largest animal of all time?
As you can see, I spent countless hours of my youth poring over my collection of illustrated prehistoric bestiaries. I still have the books, and even now I am surprised by some of the fever dreams that fill their pages. But then again, I always maintain that our modern biological world contains equally astonishing specimens. The blue whale is just the most obvious example that the past does not always trump the present.
Sources
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“Blue Whale.” National Geographic. (May 15, 2015) http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/blue-whale/
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Drexel University. “Drexel Team Unveils Dreadnoughtus: A Giant, Exceptionally Complete Sauropod Dinosaur.” Eurekalert. Sept. 4, 2014. (May 15, 2015) http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/du-dtu082914.php
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Morgan, James. “Largest dinosaur ever discovered.” BBC News. May 17, 2014 (May 15, 2015) http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27441156
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National Science Foundation. “T. rex Times 7: New Dinosaur Species Discovered in Argentina.” Eurekalert. Sept. 4, 2014. (May 15, 2015) http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/nsf-trt090414.php
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Switek, Brian. “The Last of the Rhinoceros Titans.” Phenomena: A Science Fair Hosted by National Geographic Magazine. May 7, 2013. (May 15, 2015) http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/07/the-last-of-the-rhinoceros-titans/
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Switek, Brian. “My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs.” Scientific American. 2013.
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Switek, Brian. “Paraceratherium: Giraffe Neck or Rhinoceros Neck?” ScienceBlogs. May 15, 2009. (May 27, 2015) http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2009/05/15/paraceratherium-giraffe-necked/
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Taylor, Michael P. and Mathew J. Wedel. “Why Sauropods Had Long Necks; and Why Giraffes Have Short Necks.” PeerJ. 12 Feb. 2013. (27 May 2015) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3628838/
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Wiley-Blackwell. “A fossilized giant rhinoceros bone challenges Anatolia’s isolation 25 million years ago.” Eurekalert. March 10, 2008. (May 27, 2015) http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/w-afg031008.php
Original Article: What is the largest land animal that ever lived on Earth?
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