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Several months ago I created a video explaining the different sizes of sea creatures that currently exist.
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While impressive I didn't talk about the sizes of land creatures at all, which will be the focus of this video.
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Standing four meters tall and weighing up to six thousand kilograms, the African Elephant is the largest land animal that currently exists.
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For scale, an average human stand one point six meters tall and weighs sixty-two kilograms,
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yet, the African elephant is considered a tiny creature when compared to the titans that once roamed the Earth.
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Even though this first creature was smaller than the African Elephant, the Anthripornis still looks unsettling when compared next to a human.
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As the largest penguin known to ever exist, the Anthripornis stood at one point eight meters tall and weighed ninety kilograms.
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A large number of other creatures that currently exist today had way bigger and more terrifying ancestors that used to live on our planet.
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For example, take any rodent today and compare them to Josephartagasia monesi an alarming creature which can grow up to three meters in length,
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stand one point five meters tall and weigh up to one ton.
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That is almost the weight of a full Toyota Corolla in the form of what is essentially a rat.
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Yet, arguably the most terrifiying creature to have ever existed was the titanoboa, a gigantic snake that lived millions of years ago in modern South America,
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known to grow up to twelve point eight meters long and weigh up to one thousand one hundred thirty-five kilograms.
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This snake can consume a human in just one gulp, safe to say, I'm pretty glad that this thing doesn't exist anymore.
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The largest arachnid to ever exist was a creature called pulmonoscorpius, a scorpion-like creature that could grow up to seventy centimeters long!!
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Yeah, a pack of this things would not be a very welcome sight, but a single sarcosucnus would be equally as terrifying.
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This creature was the largest crocodile to have ever existed, known to have grown up to twelve meters in length and weigh a ridiculous eighteen tons!
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It would take more than six Toyota Corolla to practically depict its mass.
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Though frightening, this beast is far from the largest carnivore to have ever existed.
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The T-Rex often comes to mind when we think of history's largest carnivore.
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But this title really belongs to the spinosaurus, measuring a terrifying fifteen meters long and weighing up to twenty-one tones.
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Paleontologist John R. Horner remarked:
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"if we base the ferocious factor on the length of the animal, there was nothing that ever lived on this planet that could match this creature."
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So while the spinosaurus holds the record for being the largest carnivore, it is not the largest land creature in history.
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That distinction has to go to the aptly named titanosaur.
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Measurements taken from a confirmed specimen revealed that at least one of these creatures grew to an impressive length of thirty-seven meters and weighed sixty-nine tones,
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which is the equivalent of about twelve fully grown African elephants!!!
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Compared to a human, the size of this ancient creature truly epic,
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which has lead scientists to estimate that the titanosaur grew to the maximum size that biology will allow land creatures to get to on Earth!
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For instance, if you take any creature on Earth and increased it's size somehow, it's mass would increase by a power of three.
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The width of the creature's body meaning its muscles and bones, would only increase by a power of two.
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Therefore, the larger the creature is, the more mass needs to be dedicated to bones in order to support it.
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Because of this law, and the effective gravity on Earth, it is extremely unlikely that a land creature has ever existed that weighed over one hundred tons.
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Meanwhile, the ocean plays by a different set of rules.
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The impact on size that gravity has on the Earth's surface is not affected in the ocean by buoyancy.
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So, unlike their counterparts on land, creatures in the ocean don't have to prop up all of their own weight,
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which is how you end up with a colossus like the Blue Whale at one hundred and eighty-one tons!
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The largest creature known to have ever existed.
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But even this titan is likely approaching the largest possible size of an ocean creature.
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The problem is no longer gravity, but food and energy consumption.
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The blue whale has to consume thirty-six hundred kilograms of krill every single day, just to meet its daily calorie needs.
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That's the same as about sixteen thousand seven hundred Big Macs every day, for just one whale!
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Anything larger would have to consume even more food.
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And the larger it gets, the more difficult it becomes to find that food.