Largest Body Parts
The largest body part is either the largest given body part across all
living and extinct organisms or the largest example of a body part within an
existing species. The largest animals on the planet are not the only ones to
have large body parts, with some smaller animals actually having one
particularly enlarged area of the body.
Blue Whale:
As the largest animal alive, the blue whale has the largest instance of
several body parts.
- Its tongue weighs around 2.7 tonnes (3 short tons).
- Its mouth is large enough to hold up to 90 tonnes (100 short tons) of food and water.
- Its heart typically weighs 600 kg (1,320 lb) and can reach 900 kg (1,980 lbs) in exceptional cases.
- Its aorta is about 23 centimetres (9.1 in) in diameter.
Other Animals:
- The giant and colossal
squids have the largest recorded eyes of any living animal, with a maximum
diameter of at least 27 cm (11 in). Only the extinct ichthyosaurs
are known to have had larger eyes.
- The giraffe has the longest
neck of any land mammal.
- The Wandering Albatross has
the largest wingspan at 3.63 metres (11 feet 11 inches).
- The longest horns ever
recorded belonged to a wild water buffalo and measured 4.24 metres (13
feet 11 inches) from tip to tip.
- The largest and heaviest brain
belongs to the sperm whale, weighing around 9 kilograms.
- The Arctic lion's mane
jellyfish may be the longest animal; the biggest had a bell (body) with a
diameter of 2.28 meters (7 feet 6 inches) and the tentacles reached
36.5 meters (120 feet). It was found washed up on the shore of Massachusetts
Bay in 1870.
- Bootlace worms can reach great lengths. A specimen was measured at 55 m (180 feet) but this may be unreliable as the body is somewhat elastic.
In Proportion To Body Size:
- The Morgan's Sphinx hawk
moth has the longest proboscis in relation to its body size. Its
25–30 cm proboscis is over 3 times longer than its body. It is also
known as Darwin's
Moth because Charles Darwin predicted its existence some 40 years before
it was discovered from experiments he did on an orchid with a "foot
long" nectary.
- The tube-lipped nectar bat has the longest tongue of any mammal in relation to its body size. Its 85 mm (3.3 in) tongue is 1.5 times longer than its body, and must be kept inside its rib cage.
- The vampire squid has the
largest eyes of any animal relative to its size.
- The Kiwi lays the largest
egg of any bird relative to its size - up to a quarter of the mass of the
female.
- Shrews have the largest brain-to-body
mass ratio of any animal, with brains that are 10% of body weight. Humans
however have the largest encephalization quotient of any animal.
Humans:
- The Femur
is the longest bone in humans.
- The largest artery is the aorta
and the largest vein is the inferior vena cava.
- The largest internal organ is the liver. It is also the heaviest organ, with an average of 1.6 kilograms (3.5 pounds).
- The largest external organ, which is also the largest organ in general, is the skin.
- The longest muscle is the sartorius muscle in the thigh.
- The longest single nerve is
the sciatic nerve in the thigh, counting its branches and axons.
Human Records:
- The person with the longest tongue is Steven Taylor of Coventry, England, whose tongue measures 9.8 centimetres (3.86 in).
- The woman with the longest legs is Svetlana Pankratova. At a height of 200 cm (6.56 ft), her legs measure 132 centimetres (52 in).
- The woman with the longest fingernails is Lee Redmond. The total length of her fingernails is 7.513 meters.
- The longest head of hair belonged to Xie Qiuping of China and measured 5.627 metres (18 feet 5.54 inches) on 8 May 2004.
- The longest beard ever measured belonged to Hans Langseth of Norway; at his death in 1927 it was 5.33 metres (17.5 ft) long.
- The longest ear hair belongs to Victor Anthony of India, measuring 18.1 centimetres (7.12 inches).
- The largest feet belonged to Matthew McGrory. His left foot measured 17 inches (43 cm) and he wore size 29 1/2 shoes.
