Flora and fauna of the Earth are represented by different types of animals and plants. Vertebrates and amphibians boast the largest number of species. Sometimes it is even impossible to imagine that such tiny amphibians, birds or mammals exist. Terrestrial inhabitants can present many surprises. And in the past, the planet was inhabited by completely different animals, which also had their own characteristics.
The biggest land dwellers
It's no secret that the largest animal that lives on land is an elephant.
The African elephant can reach a height of up to 3.5 meters and weigh seven tons. In the Guinness Book of Records, a case was recorded when an elephant was killed while hunting, whose weight was more than 12 tons. This is the absolute record holder.
The biggest predator
But a large animal can be determined not only by weight. The biggest land predators are polar bears.
The average weight of polar bears is 400-600 kilograms, and the length is more than two and a half meters. A bear weighing over a ton is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. There are rumors that someone met a brown bear much larger than his brother, butthey were not confirmed, and still the polar bear remains the biggest predator.
The tallest animal
The tallest inhabitants of land are giraffes. The growth of an adult individual can be more than five meters, while half of the length falls on the neck. He needs this length in order to make it convenient to pick leaves from high branches. The record holder is a giraffe who lived in Kenya. He was 6 meters 10 centimeters tall.
The longest animal
The longest land dweller is the anaconda. There are suggestions that there was a specimen on earth that was 11.4 meters long. But this is not known for certain, because this anaconda has not survived.
The Guinness Book of Records says that the maximum length of an animal that lives on earth is 10 meters. This is a reticulated python.
The smallest animals
The smallest animal is the tiny Paedophryne frog. Its length is about 8 millimeters.
Slightly larger than a frog, but also small in size - the Brookkensia chameleon. Their length does not exceed one and a half centimeters. But, like large chameleons, the ability to mimic the environment has been preserved.
Dwarf gecko is 1.5 to 1.8 centimeters long. It was discovered quite recently, at the beginning of the 2000s, but this species is already threatened with extinction.
The smallest bird is the hummingbird. Its length ranges from 5 to 7 centimeters, and its weight does not exceed two grams.
The pig-nosed bat is only three centimeters long andweighs approximately two grams. Due to its size, it is easy to confuse it with insects. This animal is almost on the verge of extinction, so it can only be found in the national park of Thailand. Like other types of bats, they are nocturnal and give birth once a year.
The smallest mammal is the pygmy multitooth. The length without a tail of this animal is only 3-4 centimeters. In appearance, it looks like a smaller copy of a mouse or a rat.
And the last mammal, which is much smaller than all members of its species, is the northern pudu. This is a miniature deer up to forty centimeters tall. His horns are almost invisible. Lives only in Chile.
The most extinct animals
Before the appearance of man, giant monsters lived on Earth, but to this day they have survived only in the form of archaeological finds.
Prehistoric flora and fauna amaze with their views. Some animals have hardly changed, while others, on the contrary, have changed beyond recognition.
It should be noted that during the dinosaur period, all animals were gigantic, both those that lived on land and those that lived in the water.
The largest land vertebrates that have ever lived on the planet are dinosaurs. The largest of them is the supersaurus. He lived in the USA. The length of his body was about 34 meters, his height was about 10 meters, and his weight was forty tons. Oddly enough, this animal was a herbivore.
Prehistoric elephants are huge animals with beak-like mouthsducks. In Latin they are called "platybeladones".
They could be up to six meters long and up to three meters high. But, despite the intimidating appearance, this elephant was a herbivore and with the help of his "shovel" dug up the roots of plants.
The giant short-faced bear is the progenitor of the modern bear, but it was much larger. If he walked on his hind legs, then his height would be about 3.5 meters. The weight of the "bear" is also a match - almost a ton.
The smallest extinct animals
The smallest inhabitants of the land became extinct not only due to natural causes, but also because of man.
The smallest (Balinese) tiger was completely destroyed presumably in 1939. The weight of the Bali tiger reached one hundred kilograms, which is very small compared to other tigers.
The smallest dinosaur - cosmognatus length. He lived in what is now Germany and France.
Of course, it's only small compared to other dinosaurs. It was about 70 centimeters long and weighed three kilograms.
