If you like nature and wildlife, you should check out the Wikipedia article, “Largest Organisms.” It is incredibly fascinating. Just getting a taste of the megafauna and megaflora of the past gives us a new perspective on life in our world today. (There is a similar Wikipedia article, with pictures at the end, called “Megafauna.”)
Here are some of the biggest and best:
- Today’s wombats are small marsupials about 1 meter long; however, the extinct giant wombat weighed up to 2 tons, a huge creature.
- The largest extinct bear, Ursus maritimus tyrannus, is believed to have been about 6 ft tall at the shoulder when on all fours; this is almost twice as tall as a grizzly in the same posture (3.3 ft on all fours). However, a complete skeleton has not been found. Another extinct bear was also about the same size, the giant short-faced bear.
- The largest animal in the armadillo family is the extinct glyptodon, which weighed about 2 tons. (You wouldn’t want to hit one of those at night!)
- In the “odd-toed ungulate” family, which includes today’s rhino, the largest member was the paraceratherium, which stood an awesome 18 ft tall at the shoulder.
- In the anteater and sloth family, the largest extinct relative was the megatherium, which standing on its hind legs would have been about twice as tall as a modern elephant.
- One of the largest extinct rodents found is the Josephoartigasia monesi, which may have weighed 2,000-3,000 pounds, although estimates vary widely. (That’s one “rodent of unusual size”!) The giant beaver could grow up to 8 ft in length.
- The Steller’s sea cow, which became extinct only recently, in the late 1700s, was more than double the length of its surviving relative, the manatee.
- Ancient crocodiles, such as purussaurus, grew up to 40 ft long (versus 15-17 ft in modern crocs); one species of extinct croc may have been up to 60 ft long. Try measuring that out for perspective!
- In the snake and lizard family, the largest relatives were probably the mosasaurs (water-dwelling lizard-like creatures with flippers), which could be up to 50 ft long. The largest fossil snake found is titanoboa, which may have been up to 42 ft long on average. A lizard called megalania may have been up to 23 ft long, making it the largest land lizard of all time.
- The largest fossil turtle is archelon, with a flipper-to-flipper span of 16 ft, which seems to be about 1.5-2 times as big as the largest modern sea turtles.
- The largest amphibian was the prionosuchus, which at 30 ft long makes all modern salamanders look like dwarfs. The largest extinct frog was the devil frog, at 16 in long.
- There were, of course, many enormous dinosaurs and dinosaur-like creatures, which have no similar species today.
- Some large birds existed in the past: the elephant bird at 10 ft, the dromornis at 10 ft, the giant moa at 12 ft, and the brontornis at 9 ft. But these were all flightless birds. The largest flying bird was a type of condor, the giant teratorn, which had a wingspan of 20-26 ft. The largest flying animal (not a bird) was the pterosaur quetzalcoatlus, which had a wingspan of 35-40 ft.
- There were some big fish in those ancient seas. Estimates of the largest fish, leedsichthys, range from 30 to 50 to as much as 100 ft long. The largest shark found is megalodon, at 50-60 ft long; the largest shark today is the relatively harmless whale shark at 45 ft; the great white, the largest of the “deadly” sharks, is about 20 ft. Dunkleosteus, another larger fish with a vicious looking mouth, could grow to 33 ft long.
- The biggest anthropod (crabs, lobsters, spiders, and such) known was the sea scorpion, which could get up to 8 ft long. Land scorpions could get pretty big too; the extinct pulmonoscorpius grew up to 3 ft long, dwarfing all modern scorpions. The largest millipede found is arthropleura, up to 8 ft long and 18 in wide—which is totally amazing.
- Ancient dragonflies had a wingspan of 2.5 to 3 ft.
It’s worth noting that perhaps the largest creature, in terms of body mass, to live on this planet is still alive—the blue whale.
There is a lot more on the Wikipedia page to astound and amuse.
How ’bout confirmed remains of the “Largest Living Humans of the Past”?!
As Biblical creationist, we believe that antediluvian, and immediate post flood mankind were 2-3 times larger than humans today. Periodically we read about and even see pictures of giant human skeletons/fossils that are found and then allegedly covered up, conveniently ‘lost’, destroyed etc. by paleontologist, evolutionist etc. into whose world view such don’t fit. Does anyone know of any confirmed discoveries of giant human remains that have been preserved, are documented and proveable, or of any documented distruction of the same by those not wanting them to see the light of day? I recntly saw a bunch of pictures of such discoveries some of which were proven Photoshop hoaxes. Otheres you can read about at another suspect webpage http://www.returnofthenephilim.....story.html Would sure like to find out whether any one has done some serious research on this topic and come up with and reeliable answers to this question…
Good question. I would love to see that too. I know Ellen White talks about seeing fossilized human remains larger than present size. But it is entirely possible that she was just repeating what she’d been told, as many early fossils were misidentified as human, etc., and later were found to be completely new species. I’ve heard many anecdotal reports, but would like to find something more substantial.
In the same way that lions and tigers can produce giant ligers, the union of neanderthal and african early-human a few tens of thousands of years ago may have created some giant hybrids which would have been legendary for sure.
The lack of bone evidence has a lot to do with the giants having a fondness for grinding bones in order to make ‘bread’.
Those who believe in the Genesis Flood generally consider that it was during this period that fossils were created. Thus, when you consider the size of the ark, you need to think of it accommodating these gargantuan creatures. Of course, the ark might be bigger than we think of it being, based on our concept of “cubit.” In order to fit enough animals on board, some people propose that the ark contained only one kind of feline, one pair of canines, etc. from which our current variety (housecats, tigers, cheetahs, foxes, timber wolves, etc.) rapidly evolved after Noah. I find this hard to swallow. Where is there any evidence of intermediate forms between cheetahs and anything else, for example?
Good points, Alvin. I prefer to believe that God created one of each variety of animals; but it’s possible much of the diversification took place prior to the Flood, and it’s possible it was the diversified species that God preserved on the ark. This is one of those mysteries we can only guess at, since there is so much information we lack. Some people have proposed that the animals aboard the ark may have been juveniles (some or all), and this would have reduced both the space required for animals and their food supplies. Maybe God caused many animals to sleep/hibernate during the months at sea, too; who knows. Imagine eight people trying to feed and clean up after all those critters! There is no record that any sea creatures were preserved on the ark, and this itself would greatly reduce the space required.