From dinosaurs the size of chickens to lumbering sauropods, the animals that have walked and swum on Earth have varied enormously in size and shape and length. Let’s take a look at a few examples:
* The sizes shown in the gallery are the maximum these animals are known to have reached. The artwork is not perfectly to scale, but it gives an idea of what these animals may have looked like if they could have been brought together.
Biggest killer on land?
The dinosaur Spinosaurus is the largest known land dwelling meat eater. It was 50 ft (16 m) long and weighed 13½ tons (12 metric tons).
Largest flying animal?
Hatzegopteryx was a pterosaur—a kind of flying reptile. Its wingspan was about 36 ft (11 m), making it as big as a small aeroplane. For comparison, the bird with the largest wingspan today is the wandering albatross, with a span of 12 ft (3.6 m).
The blue whale is the world’s largest living animal. Its heart alone is the size of a small car.
Pigeon-sized Anchiornis is the smallest known prehistoric dinosaur. The Cuban bee hummingbird is the smallest living dinosaur.
Largest land animal?
The largest animal ever to walk on Earth might have been a dinosaur called Amphicoelias (am-fee SEE-lee-ass). More than a century ago, a single backbone of Amphicoelias was found. It was drawn and described, but then mysteriously disappeared. The description suggests Amphicoelias was an incredible 130–196 ft (40–60 meters) in length and 135 tons (120 metric tons) in weight.