[Ring announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome
to the Champions Arena, where two teams will compete for the title of the biggest creature
on the planet. In the blue corner are the oldest inhabitants
of our planet - dinosaurs, in the red corner are modern animals. And let the victory go to the largest! [Play by Play guy] The first round begins
with a duel between two herbivorous creatures. The largest land animal of our time enters
the ring - the African elephant! Its weight is 6-12 tons. It weighs more than the anchor of a cruise
ship and is 5 times heavier than the tallest animal on the planet - a giraffe. But still the elephant loses a lot to Argentinosaurus
- the largest herbivorous dinosaur in the world. With a length of over 121 feet and tipping
the scales at 90 tons, this giant will cover just over half of the baseball field and weighs
like 3 subway cars. 1-0 in favor of the prehistoric period. Second round! The battle between predators. The largest modern land predator is the polar
bear. It is believed that on Earth, the polar bear
has no enemies among animals. And it figures: the largest recorded weight
of this animal reached 1 ton. This is about the weight of a car. But even with such dimensions, the polar bear
loses to Spinosaurus. This creature is considered the largest land
predator that ever existed on the planet. Its length reached 49 feet, approximately
2 London red buses. And it weighs 7 times more than our polar
bear. 2-0 in favor of the dinosaurs! But no matter how dangerous and huge land
animals are, in fact, they’re babies compared to those creatures that live in the seas and
oceans. Third round! Let's start with just 8 feet. That would be about four people…No! This is the length of a big artificial Christmas
tree. It would seem not so much, if it didn’t
belong to the largest arthropod insect on the planet - a sea scorpion. About 460 million years ago, these huge creatures
resembling large space bugs inhabited shallow waters and terrified all small marine mammals. These predators are believed to have been
distant relatives of all scorpions. Of modern insects, no one will compete with
this creature (and I'm extremely happy about that ). Giant weta, a beetle resembling a
cricket slightly smaller than a person’s palm, won't go into a duel, knowing in advance
that it has no chance against a sea scorpion. 3-0. And again, prehistoric animals win. Fourth round! Sea predators. The largest marine predator ever is considered
Shastasaurus. It lived about 235 million years ago and reached
a length of 65.5 feet - it could easily cover the entire bowling alley with itself, and
it weighed 20 tons - almost like the weight of a modern superjet. Still, this ancient dinosaur loses in size
to the largest marine modern animal - the sperm whale. It weighs like a herd of 50 cows, and almost
three times as much as Shastasaurus, while being of a similar length. 3-1! Modern animals still lose by a wide margin. Fifth round! Now, from the depths of the ocean we are soaring
into the sky. The largest flying bird to date is an albatross. Its wingspan is 11 feet - almost like the
length of the Volkswagen Beetle. But, unfortunately, the albatross easily loses
to its distant ancestor - the bird Argentavis, who lived 5-8 million years ago. Its wingspan is almost 20 feet and... it's
almost like TWO Volkswagen Beetles! Albatross, I'm sorry, but there is no chance
of victory. 4-1 in favor of the prehistoric animals! It seems the living animals don't have a single
chance in this championship but wait... right now, the largest creature that ever existed
on Earth appears on the ring. Its size is comparable to a 9-story building. And just the tongue of this creature weighs
like a female African elephant! And this is not some ancient dinosaur, but
ours, a modern marine inhabitant! The champion for the title of the largest
animal on Earth is a blue whale! All hail the king! But can land animals reach the same size as
dinosaurs? Is it possible that in the future, for some
reason, mammals will become as large as, for example, Godzilla or Kraken? Even if creatures of such sizes suddenly appeared,
then, believe me, it certainly would not destroy cities, as shown in many films. I’ll explain why in a couple of minutes,
but before that I’ll talk about marine giants. Unlike land, the ocean has a much greater
chance of a huge creature appearing. There are several theories in this regard:
lower temperature in the water slows down metabolism. And the slower the metabolism, the more it
accumulates. Theoretically, if any marine life is given
a safe zone and an endless supply of food, then it can grow to an enormous size. The whale is proof of this. However, everyone knows about whales, but
what about real sea monsters? –Release the Kraken! Almost all seafarers have been scaring each
other with stories about Kraken since ancient times, but the worst thing in these tales
is that they’re absolutely true. Around the world, since the 17th century,
many Kraken sightings have been recorded. Modern scientists have given them a more scientific
name - architeuthis. Information about these creatures is not limited
to records of past centuries, though. For example, in 2007, a 29-foot squid was
caught in the Antarctic waters (about the width of a single letter from the Hollywood
inscription in California) and weighing half a ton, which is slightly more than a zebra. You can easily find photos of this monster
on the Internet. But even this is far from the biggest Kraken. In the Bermuda region, at the bottom of the
ocean, hide squids that prey on whales and sperm whales – two of the largest creatures
on Earth. Kraken from the Bermuda Depths reach 164 feet! The same length of the Arc de Triomphe in
Paris! No wonder so many ships disappear in the Bermuda
Triangle! And since the known ocean is only 5 percent
of it all, it is quite possible that something truly huge and terrible is living in its depths. Let’s keep as far as possible from these
places and crawl to the land. As I said, if the organism is given a safe
area and environment with unlimited food, then in the process of evolution a real Godzilla
may appear. But this doesn't work on the ground because
all animals have a skeleton. The strength of bones and joints is limited. Even the bones of the largest dinosaurs weren’t
really strong. Due to gravity, it was difficult for them
to move around, they were slow, and this is not very good when there are a lot of predators
around. Such huge dimensions didn't help, but rather
prevented the dinosaurs from surviving. But the skeleton is not the only problem if
you are a giant. A huge load on the heart and high blood pressure
is another thing. Recently, scientists found that along with
the weight of the dinosaur, its body temperature increased. So, for example, a 40-ton dinosaur’s temperature
reached 118°F. And this is almost the limit for the comfortable existence of a living
organism. So, if Godzilla had ever crawled out of the
depths of the ocean, believe me, it wouldn't have gone to ruin the city, it would have
simply been too lazy to do it. Instead, it would’ve found itself some uninhabited
island and sunbathed there for the rest of its life, going hunting from time to time. But you know, some creatures, hypothetically,
can eventually turn into huge titans! And you won’t like them, because I'm talking
about insects. Like I said, the bones inside animals can't
withstand enormous weight, but the body structure of almost all insects is completely different. Outwardly, they are covered with a skeleton,
while soft tissues are hidden inside. Some insects are able to shed their exoskeleton
when their soft body becomes larger. And then, on a new large body, a new, stronger
skeleton is already growing. In theory, such an upgrade can happen many
times until a bug becomes the size of an airplane. But fortunately, this is impossible, because
the endless growth of insects is hindered by their own habitat full of dangers and harsh
environmental conditions. No offense to bugs, but I hope that will continue
this way. And speaking about the largest living creatures
on the planet, I can't but mention the tallest tree in the world. This is Hyperion — a Sequoia sempervirens. Its height reaches 379 feet! It is 74 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty
and about the same height as a 38-story building! You can say with confidence that King-Kong
could easily climb such a tree. Hey, if you learned something new today, then
give the video a like and share it with a friend! And here are some other cool videos I think
you'll enjoy. Just click to the left or right, and stay
on the Bright Side of life!
