![FallPando02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/FallPando02.jpg)
The largest organisms now found on Earth can be determined according to various aspects of an
organism's size, such as: mass, volume, area, length, height, or even
genome size
Genome size is the total amount of DNA contained within one copy of a single complete genome. It is typically measured in terms of mass in picograms (trillionths (10−12) of a gram, abbreviated pg) or less frequently in daltons, or as the total ...
. Some organisms group together to form a
superorganism
A superorganism or supraorganism is a group of synergetically interacting organisms of the same species. A community of synergetically interacting organisms of different species is called a holobiont.
Concept
The term superorganism is used mo ...
(such as
ant
Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22 ...
s or
bees), but such are not classed as single large organisms. The
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...
is the world's largest structure composed of living entities, stretching , but contains many organisms of many types of species.
This article lists the largest species for various types of organisms and mostly considers
extant
Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to:
* Extant hereditary titles
* Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English
* Extant taxon, a taxon which is not extinct, ...
species. The organism sizes listed are frequently considered "outsized" and are not in the normal size range for the respective group.
If considered singular entities, the largest organisms are
clonal colonies
A clonal colony or genet is a group of genetically identical individuals, such as plants, fungi, or bacteria, that have grown in a given location, all originating vegetatively, not sexually, from a single ancestor. In plants, an individual in s ...
which can spread over large areas.
Pando, a clonal colony of the
quaking aspen tree, is widely considered to be the largest such organism by mass. Even if such colonies are excluded,
trees
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are u ...
retain their dominance of this listing, with the
giant sequoia
''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (giant sequoia; also known as giant redwood, Sierra redwood, Sierran redwood, California big tree, Wellingtonia or simply big treea nickname also used by John Muir) is the sole living species in the genus ''Sequoiade ...
being the most massive tree. In 2006 a huge
clonal colony
A clonal colony or genet is a group of genetically identical individuals, such as plants, fungi, or bacteria, that have grown in a given location, all originating vegetatively, not sexually, from a single ancestor. In plants, an individual in s ...
of the seagrass ''
Posidonia oceanica
''Posidonia oceanica'', commonly known as Neptune grass or Mediterranean tapeweed, is a seagrass species that is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. It forms large underwater meadows that are an important part of the ecosystem. The fruit is free f ...
'' was discovered south of the island of
Ibiza
Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its l ...
. At across, and estimated at around 100,000 years old, it may be one of the largest and
oldest clonal colonies on Earth.
Among
animals
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...
, the largest species are all
marine mammal
Marine mammals are aquatic mammals that rely on the ocean and other marine ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as seals, whales, manatees, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their reli ...
s, specifically
whales
Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...
. The
blue whale
The blue whale (''Balaenoptera musculus'') is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of and weighing up to , it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can ...
is believed to be the largest animal to have ever lived. The largest land animal classification is also dominated by
mammals
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...
, with the
African bush elephant
The African bush elephant (''Loxodonta africana'') is one of two extant African elephant species and one of three extant elephant species. It is the largest living terrestrial animal, with bulls reaching a shoulder height of up to and a body ...
being the largest of these.
Plants
The largest single-stem tree by wood volume and mass is the
giant sequoia
''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (giant sequoia; also known as giant redwood, Sierra redwood, Sierran redwood, California big tree, Wellingtonia or simply big treea nickname also used by John Muir) is the sole living species in the genus ''Sequoiade ...
(''Sequoiadendron giganteum''), native to Sierra Nevada and California; it typically grows to a height of and in diameter.
The largest organism in the world, according to mass, is the
aspen tree
Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus.
Species
These species are called aspens:
*''Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China, ...
whose colonies of clones can grow up to long. The largest such colony is
Pando, in the Fishlake National Forest in Utah.
A form of flowering plant that far exceeds Pando as the largest organism on earth in area and probably also mass, is the giant marine plant, ''
Posidonia australis
''Posidonia australis'', also known as fibre-ball weed or ribbon weed, is a species of seagrass that occurs in the southern waters of Australia. It forms large meadows important to environmental conservation. Balls of decomposing detritus from ...
'', living in
Shark Bay
Shark Bay (Malgana: ''Gathaagudu'', "two waters") is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/shark-bay area is located approximately north of Perth, on the ...
, Australia. Its length is about and it covers an area of . It is among the
oldest known clonal plants too.
Another giant marine plant of the genus Posidonia, ''
Posidonia oceanica
''Posidonia oceanica'', commonly known as Neptune grass or Mediterranean tapeweed, is a seagrass species that is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. It forms large underwater meadows that are an important part of the ecosystem. The fruit is free f ...
'' discovered in the Mediterranean near the Balearic Islands, Spain may be the
oldest living organism in the world, with an estimated age of 100,000 years.
[Ibiza's Monster Marine Plant]
. ''Ibiza Spotlight'' (2006-05-28).
The largest individual flower in the world is ''
Rafflesia arnoldii
''Rafflesia arnoldii'', the corpse flower or giant padma, is a species of flowering plant in the parasitic genus ''Rafflesia''. It is noted for producing the largest individual flower on Earth. It has a strong and unpleasant odor of decaying f ...
'', while the
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
with the largest unbranched
inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...
in the world is ''
Amorphophallus titanum
''Amorphophallus'' (from Ancient Greek , "without form, misshapen" + ''phallos'', "penis", referring to the shape of the prominent spadix) is a large genus of some 200 tropical and subtropical tuberous herbaceous plants from the ''Arum'' family ...
.'' Both are native to
Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
island of
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
.
Green algae
Green algae
The green algae (singular: green alga) are a group consisting of the Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister which contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/Streptophyta. The land plants (Embryophytes) have emerged deep in the Charophyte alga as ...
are photosynthetic unicellular and multicellular
protist
A protist () is any eukaryotic organism (that is, an organism whose cells contain a cell nucleus) that is not an animal, plant, or fungus. While it is likely that protists share a common ancestor (the last eukaryotic common ancestor), the exc ...
s that are related to land plants. The
thallus
Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms wer ...
of the unicellular mermaid's wineglass, ''
Acetabularia
''Acetabularia'' is a genus of green algae in the family Polyphysaceae, Typically found in subtropical waters, ''Acetabularia'' is a single-celled organism, but gigantic in size and complex in form, making it an excellent model organism for stu ...
'', can grow to several inches (perhaps 0.1 to 0.2 m) in length. The fronds of the similarly unicellular, and invasive ''
Caulerpa taxifolia
''Caulerpa taxifolia'' is a species of green seaweed, an alga of the genus ''Caulerpa'', native to tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Caribbean Sea. The species name ''taxifolia'' arises from the resemblance of its leaf-like ...
'' can grow up to a foot (0.3 m) long.
Animals
Fungi
![Armillaria ostoyae](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Armillaria_ostoyae.jpg)
The largest living
fungus
A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from th ...
may be a
honey fungus
''Armillaria'' is a genus of fungi that includes the '' A. mellea'' species known as honey fungi that live on trees and woody shrubs. It includes about 10 species formerly categorized summarily as ''A. mellea''. ''Armillarias'' are long-l ...
of the
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
''
Armillaria ostoyae
''Armillaria ostoyae'' (synonym ''Armillaria solidipes'') is a species of fungus (mushroom), pathogenic to trees, in the family Physalacriaceae. In the western United States, it is the most common variant of the group of species under the nam ...
''.
A mushroom of this type in the
Malheur National Forest
The Malheur National Forest is a United States National Forest, National Forest in the U.S. state of Oregon. It contains more than in the Blue Mountains (Pacific Northwest), Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon. The forest consists of Great Basin ...
in the
Blue Mountains of eastern
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
, U.S. was found to be the largest fungal colony in the world, spanning of area.
This organism is estimated to be 2,400 years old. The fungus was written about in the April 2003 issue of the ''
Canadian Journal of Forest Research
The ''Canadian Journal of Forest Research'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by NRC Research Press. It covers research related to forest resource management, including forest biology, biometry, conservation, economics, genetics, h ...
''. While an accurate estimate has not been made, the total
weight
In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity.
Some standard textbooks define weight as a Euclidean vector, vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weigh ...
of the colony may be as much as 605
ton
Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses.
Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean
* the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds
...
s. If this colony is considered a single organism, then it is the largest known organism in the world by area, and rivals the aspen grove "
Pando" as the known organism with the highest living
biomass
Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...
. It is not known, however, whether it is a single organism with all parts of the
mycelium
Mycelium (plural mycelia) is a root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. Fungal colonies composed of mycelium are found in and on soil and many other substrate (biology), substrates. A typical single ...
connected.
[
A spatial genetic analysis estimated that a specimen of ''Armillaria ostoyae'' growing over in northern ]Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
, United States weighs 440 ton
Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses.
Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean
* the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds
...
s (4 x 105 kg). Approximations of the land area of the Oregon "humongous fungus" are (, possibly weighing as much as 7,500 tons as the world's most massive living organism.
In ''Armillaria ostoyae
''Armillaria ostoyae'' (synonym ''Armillaria solidipes'') is a species of fungus (mushroom), pathogenic to trees, in the family Physalacriaceae. In the western United States, it is the most common variant of the group of species under the nam ...
'', each individual mushroom (the fruiting body, similar to a flower on a plant) has only a stipe, and a pileus up to across. There are many other fungi which produce a larger individual size mushroom. The largest known fruiting body of a fungus is a specimen of ''Phellinus ellipsoideus
''Phellinus ellipsoideus'' (formerly ''Fomitiporia ellipsoidea'') is a species of polypore fungus in the family Hymenochaetaceae, a specimen of which produced the largest fungal fruit body ever recorded. Found in China, the fruit bodies produc ...
'' (formerly ''Fomitiporia ellipsoidea'') found on Hainan Island
Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...
.[Walker, Matt. (2011-08-01]
Giant fungus discovered in China
Bbc.co.uk The fruiting body masses up to .
Until ''P. ellipsoideus'' replaced it, the largest individual fruit body came from ''Rigidoporus ulmarius
''Rigidoporus ulmarius'' is a fungal plant pathogen found mainly on broad-leaved trees. Elm is considered particularly susceptible.
The fruiting bodies are white, knobbly and relatively hard, requiring a fair amount of force to break. Older bod ...
''. ''R. ulmarius'' can grow up to , tall, across, and has a circumference of up to .
Lichen
''Umbilicaria mammulata
''Umbilicaria mammulata'', or smooth rock tripe, is a foliose lichen found on boulders and rock walls.
Description
''Umbilicaria mammulata'' is among the largest lichens in the world. The thallus of ''U. mammulata'' is usually in diameter, but ...
'' is among the largest lichens in the world. The thallus
Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms wer ...
of ''U. mammulata'' is usually in diameter, but specimens have been known to reach in the Smoky Mountains
The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge ...
of Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
.
The longest lichen is '' Usnea longissima'', which may grow to exceed 20 feet in length.
Protists
(Note: the group Protista
A protist () is any eukaryotic organism (that is, an organism whose cells contain a cell nucleus) that is not an animal, plant, or fungus. While it is likely that protists share a common ancestor (the last eukaryotic common ancestor), the excl ...
is not used in current taxonomy.)
Amoebozoans (
Amoebozoa
Amoebozoa is a major taxonomic group containing about 2,400 described species of amoeboid protists, often possessing blunt, fingerlike, lobose pseudopods and tubular mitochondrial cristae. In traditional and currently no longer supported classi ...
)
:Among the organisms that are not multicellular
A multicellular organism is an organism that consists of more than one cell, in contrast to unicellular organism.
All species of animals, land plants and most fungi are multicellular, as are many algae, whereas a few organisms are partially uni- ...
, the largest are the slime mold
Slime mold or slime mould is an informal name given to several kinds of unrelated eukaryotic organisms with a life cycle that includes a free-living single-celled stage and the formation of spores. Spores are often produced in macroscopic mu ...
s, such as ''Physarum polycephalum
''Physarum polycephalum'', an acellular slime mold or myxomycete popularly known as "the blob", is a protist with diverse cellular forms and broad geographic distribution. The “acellular” moniker derives from the plasmodial stage of the lif ...
'', some of which can reach a diameter over . These organisms are unicellular
A unicellular organism, also known as a single-celled organism, is an organism that consists of a single cell, unlike a multicellular organism that consists of multiple cells. Organisms fall into two general categories: prokaryotic organisms and ...
, but they are multinucleate
Multinucleate cells (also known as multinucleated or polynuclear cells) are eukaryotic cells that have more than one nucleus per cell, i.e., multiple nuclei share one common cytoplasm. Mitosis in multinucleate cells can occur either in a coordinat ...
.
Euglenozoans (
Euglenozoa
Euglenozoa are a large group of flagellate Discoba. They include a variety of common free-living species, as well as a few important parasites, some of which infect humans. Euglenozoa are represented by three major clades, i.e., Kinetoplastea, Di ...
)
:Some euglenophyte
Euglenozoa are a large group of flagellate Discoba. They include a variety of common free-living species, as well as a few important parasites, some of which infect humans. Euglenozoa are represented by three major clades, i.e., Kinetoplastea, D ...
s, such as certain species of ''Euglena
''Euglena'' is a genus of Unicellular organism, single cell flagellate eukaryotes. It is the best known and most widely studied member of the class Euglenoidea, a diverse group containing some 54 genera and at least 200 species. Species of ''Eug ...
'', reach lengths of 400 μm.[
]
Rhizarians (
Rhizaria
The Rhizaria are an ill-defined but species-rich supergroup of mostly unicellular eukaryotes. Except for the Chlorarachniophytes and three species in the genus Paulinella in the phylum Cercozoa, they are all non-photosynthethic, but many foramini ...
)
:The largest species traditionally considered protozoa
Protozoa (singular: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a group of single-celled eukaryotes, either free-living or parasitic, that feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or organic tissues and debris. Histo ...
are giant amoeboid
An amoeba (; less commonly spelled ameba or amœba; plural ''am(o)ebas'' or ''am(o)ebae'' ), often called an amoeboid, is a type of cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and retracting pseudopo ...
s like foraminifera
Foraminifera (; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of amoeboid protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell biology), ectoplasm for catching food and ot ...
ns. One such species, the xenophyophore ''Syringammina fragilissima
''Syringammina'' is a xenophyophore found off the coast of Scotland, near Rockall. It is one of the largest single-celled organisms known, at up to across. It was first described in 1882 by the oceanographer John Murray, after being discovered ...
'', can attain a size of .
Alveolates ( Alveolata)
:The largest ciliate
The ciliates are a group of alveolates characterized by the presence of hair-like organelles called cilia, which are identical in structure to flagellum, eukaryotic flagella, but are in general shorter and present in much larger numbers, with a ...
s, such as ''Spirostomum
''Spirostomum'' is a genus of ciliated protists that belongs to the class Heterotrichea. It is known for being very contractile.Fernandes, N.M.; da Silva Neto, I.D. (2013). “Morphology and 18S rDNA gene sequence of ''Spirostomum minus'' and ''S ...
'', can attain a length over .
Stramenopiles (
Stramenopila
Stramenopile is a clade of organisms distinguished by the presence of stiff tripartite external hairs. In most species, the hairs are attached to flagella, in some they are attached to other areas of the cellular surface, and in some they have b ...
)
:The largest stramenopiles
Stramenopile is a clade of organisms distinguished by the presence of stiff tripartite external hairs. In most species, the hairs are attached to flagella, in some they are attached to other areas of the cellular surface, and in some they have be ...
are giant kelp
''Macrocystis pyrifera'', commonly known as giant kelp or bladder kelp, is a species of kelp (large brown algae), and one of four species in the genus ''Macrocystis''. Despite its appearance, it is not a plant; it is a heterokont. Giant kelp is ...
from the northwestern Pacific. The floating stem of ''Macrocystis
''Macrocystis'' is a monospecific genus of kelp (large brown algae). This genus contains the largest of all the phaeophyceae or brown algae. ''Macrocystis'' has pneumatocysts at the base of its blades. Sporophytes are perennial and the indiv ...
pyrifera'' can grow to a height of over .
:Macrocystis also qualifies as the largest brown alga
Brown algae (singular: alga), comprising the class (biology), class Phaeophyceae, are a large group of multicellular algae, including many seaweeds located in colder waters within the Northern Hemisphere. Brown algae are the major seaweeds of the ...
, the largest chromist
Chromista is a biological kingdom consisting of single-celled and multicellular eukaryotic species that share similar features in their photosynthetic organelles ( plastids). It includes all protists whose plastids contain chlorophyll ''c'', s ...
, and the largest protist generally.
Bacteria
The largest known species of bacterium
Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...
is named ''Thiomargarita magnifica
''Thiomargarita magnifica'' is a species of sulfur-oxidizing gammaproteobacteria, found growing underwater on the detached leaves of red mangroves from the Guadeloupe archipelago in the Lesser Antilles. This filament-shaped bacteria is the large ...
'', which grows to in diameter, making it visible to the naked eye and also about five thousand times the size of more typical bacteria
Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...
. BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
described it as possessing the "size and shape of a human eyelash
An eyelash (also called lash) (Latin: ''Cilia'') is one of the hairs that grows at the edge of the eyelids. It grows in one layer on the edge of the upper and lower eyelids. Eyelashes protect the eye from debris, dust, and small particles and p ...
." ''Science'' published a new paper on the bacterium on June 23, 2022. According to a study coauthored by Jean-Marie Volland, a marine biologist and scientist at California's Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems, and an affiliate at the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, ''T. magnifica'' can grow up to 2 centimeters long.
*Cyanobacteria
:One of the largest "blue green algae
Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, blue ...
" is ''Lyngbya
''Lyngbya'' is a genus of cyanobacteria, unicellular autotrophs that form the basis of the oceanic food chain.
As a result of recent genetic analyses, several new genera were erected from this genus: ''e.g.'', ''Moorea'', '' Limnoraphis'', '' O ...
'', whose filamentous cells can be 50 μm wide.
Viruses
The largest virus on record is the ''Pithovirus sibericum
''Pithovirus'', first described in a 2014 paper, is a genus of giant virus known from two species, ''Pithovirus sibericum'', which infects amoebas and ''Pithovirus massiliensis''. It is a base pair, double-stranded DNA virus, and is a member of ...
'' with the length of 1.5 micrometres, comparable to the typical size of a bacterium and large enough to be seen in light microscopes. It was discovered in March 2014 in an ice core sample collected from a permafrost
Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...
in Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
. Prior to this discovery, the largest virus was the peculiar virus genus ''Pandoravirus
''Pandoravirus'' is a genus of giant virus, first discovered in 2013. It is the second largest in physical size of any known viral genus. Pandoraviruses have double stranded DNA genomes, with the largest genome size (2.5 million base pairs) of ...
'', which have a size of approximately 1 micrometer Micrometer can mean:
* Micrometer (device), used for accurate measurements by means of a calibrated screw
* American spelling of micrometre
The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; ...
and whose genome contains 1,900,000 to 2,500,000 base pairs of DNA.
Both these viruses infect amoebas
An amoeba (; less commonly spelled ameba or amœba; plural ''am(o)ebas'' or ''am(o)ebae'' ), often called an amoeboid, is a type of cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and retracting pseudopo ...
specifically.
See also
* Charismatic megafauna
Charismatic megafauna are animal species that are large—in the relevant category that they represent—with symbolic value or widespread popular appeal, and are often used by environmental activists to gain public support for environmentalist g ...
* Deep-sea gigantism
In zoology, deep-sea gigantism or abyssal gigantism is the tendency for species of invertebrates and other deep-sea dwelling animals to be larger than their shallower-water relatives across a large taxonomic range. Proposed explanations for thi ...
* Genome size
Genome size is the total amount of DNA contained within one copy of a single complete genome. It is typically measured in terms of mass in picograms (trillionths (10−12) of a gram, abbreviated pg) or less frequently in daltons, or as the total ...
* Island gigantism
Island gigantism, or insular gigantism, is a biological phenomenon in which the size of an animal species isolated on an island increases dramatically in comparison to its mainland relatives. Island gigantism is one aspect of the more general "i ...
* Largest body part
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 part ...
* Largest prehistoric animals
The largest prehistoric animals include both vertebrate and invertebrate species. Many of them are described below, along with their typical range of size (for the general dates of extinction, see the link to each). Many species mentioned might ...
* List of longest-living organisms
This is a list of the longest-living biological organisms: the individual(s) (or in some instances, clones) of a species with the longest natural maximum lifespans. For a given species, such a designation may include:
# The oldest known individ ...
* List of heaviest land mammals
The heaviest land mammal is the African bush elephant, which has a weight of up to . It measures 10–13 ft at the shoulder and consumes around of vegetation a day. Its tusks have been known to reach in length, although in modern populations ...
* List of world records held by plants
* List of largest inflorescences
The following is a list of the largest inflorescences known from plants that produce seeds.
See also
* List of world records held by plants
* List of largest seeds
References
{{Reflist
Flowers
Lists of plants
Inflorescences
An inflore ...
* Lists of organisms by population
This is a collection of lists of organisms by their population. While most of the numbers are estimates, they have been made by the experts in their fields. Species population is a science falling under the purview of population ecology and biog ...
* List of world's longest vines
* Megafauna
In terrestrial zoology, the megafauna (from Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and New Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") comprises the large or giant animals of an area, habitat, or geological period, extinct and/or extant. The most common threshold ...
* Smallest organisms
The smallest organisms found on Earth can be determined according to various aspects of organism size, including volume, mass, height, length, or genome size.
Given the incomplete nature of scientific knowledge, it is possible that the smalle ...
* Superorganism
A superorganism or supraorganism is a group of synergetically interacting organisms of the same species. A community of synergetically interacting organisms of different species is called a holobiont.
Concept
The term superorganism is used mo ...
References
External links
10 of the largest living things on the planet
Melissa Breyer. TreeHugger
''TreeHugger'' is a sustainability website that reports on news, and other subjects like eco-friendly design, homes, and gardens. It was rated the top sustainability blog of 2007 by Nielsen Netratings,
and was included in Time Magazine's 2009 ...
April 28, 2015
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Articles containing video clips
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