The biggest legendary creatures that ever lived on Earth., page 1

We all know about the Blue Whale, which is known to be the biggest creature that ever lived on Earth, but paleontologists discoveries raised up some doubts about this claim.
While we can't be 100% sure that there was any ever lived creature bigger than the blue whale, some clues are worth a look at. Let's see what were these creature, along with a few impressive other, smaller than the blue whale, but interesting nonetheless.

1- Leedsichthys problematicus

Leedsichthys was a giant pachycormid (an extinct group of Mesozoic bony fish) that lived in the oceans of the Middle Jurassic period and those remaining fossils have been found in the Callovian of England, northern Germany, the Oxfordian of Chile, and the Kimmeridgian of France.

Size estimation: 30 to 53 feet (9 to 16 meters)

Although the remains of over seventy individuals have been found, most of them are partial and fragmentary, which has made it difficult to estimate the fish's length. Arthur Smith Woodward, who described the specimen in 1889, estimated it to be 30 feet (around 9 metres) long, by comparing the tail of Leedsichthys with another pachycormid, Hypsocormus.
In 1986, Martill compared the bones of Leedsichthys to a pachycormid that he had recently discovered, but the unusual proportions of that specimen gave a wide range of possible sizes.
More recent estimates, from documentation of historical finds and the excavation of the most complete specimen ever from the Star Pit near Whittlesey, Peterborough, support Smith Woodward's figures of between 30 and 33 feet (9 and 10 meters).
Recent work on growth ring structures within the remains of Leedsichthys have also indicated that it would have taken 21–25 years to reach these lengths, and isolated elements from other specimens indicate that a maximum size of just over 16 metres (53 feet) is not unreasonable.

Source

2- Livyatan melvillei

Livyatan melvillei is an extinct species of physeteroid whale, which lived during the Miocene epoch, approximately 12-13 million years ago and those remaining fossils were discovered in the sediments of Pisco formation at Cerro Colorado, 35 kilometres (22 mi) south-southwest of Ica, Peru. The remains include a partially preserved skull with teeth and mandible.

Size estimation: 44 to 57 feet (13.5m to 17.5m)

Livyatan melvillei had a body length about the same as a modern adult male sperm whale. The skull of Livyatan melvillei is 3 metres (10 ft) long.
Unlike the modern sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus, L. melvillei had functional teeth in both its jaws.
The jaws of L. melvillei were robust and its temporal fossa was also considerably larger than in the modern-age sperm whale. L. melvillei is one of the largest raptorial predators yet known, with whale experts using the phrase "the biggest tetrapod bite ever found" to explain their find. The teeth of L. melvillei are up to 36 centimetres (1.18 ft) long and are claimed to be the largest of any animal yet known. Larger 'teeth' (tusks) are known, such as walrus and elephant tusks, but these are not used directly in eating.

Source
Photos source

3- Amphicoelias fragillimus

Amphicoelias is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that includes what may be the largest dinosaur ever discovered, A. fragillimus.

Size estimation: 130 to 200 feet (40 to 60 meters)

The third named Amphicoelias species, A. fragillimus, is known only from a single, incomplete 1.5 m tall neural arch (the part of a vertebra with spines and processes), either last or second to last in the series of back vertebrae, D (dorsal) 10 or D9, that would have measured 2.7 m (8.8 ft) long in life. In addition to this single vertebra, Cope's field notes contain an entry for an "immense distal end of femur” located only a few tens of meters away from the giant vertebra, and it is likely that this undescribed leg bone belonged to the same individual animal as the neural spine.

The vertebra was in poor condition, but astonishingly large, measuring 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) up to 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) in height

Source
Photo source

As a comparison scale for all these creature, I took the longest dinosaurs charts from Wikimedia and added to it two of the three creatures above plus the actual Blue Whale:

reply to post by gort51

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Apparently dinosaur brains were pretty small in comparison to the rest of the body, werent they?

I wonder what percentage of the brain was engaged in purely survival/mating habits and if there was any extra computing power to harness logic and reason.

Maybe not enough brain power for the latter?

I went to read up more about the sauropods after reading you op, and found this amazing bit of info about them.

Their body design did not vary as much as other dinosaurs, perhaps due to size constraints, but they still displayed ample variety. Some, like the diplodocids, possessed tremendously long tails which they may have been able to crack like a whip to deter or even injure predators,[4] or to make sonic booms.[

en.wikipedia.org...
Sonic booming tails

There was a giant snake found that was pretty ginormous.

At least 42 feet (13 meters) long and weighing 2,500 pounds (1,135 kilograms), the snake was "longer than a city bus ... and heavier than a car," said University of Toronto Mississauga biologist Jason Head, who announced the find today. (Read the full story and watch video.)

news.nationalgeographic.com...

A Colombian coal mine where scientists found the largest known snake species has offered up another gem: A new species of 20-foot-long (6-meter-long) prehistoric croc. (See pictures of Titanoboa, the biggest snake ever found.)

This croc was found next to the giant snake site. They say it could have been up to 27 feet long.

news.nationalgeographic.com...

Originally posted by Snoopy1978
reply to post by gort51

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Apparently dinosaur brains were pretty small in comparison to the rest of the body, werent they?

I wonder what percentage of the brain was engaged in purely survival/mating habits and if there was any extra computing power to harness logic and reason.

Maybe not enough brain power for the latter?

Brain size is not equivalent to intelligence.

reply to post by ressiv

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Well that's an interesting theory, but I am unaware of any historical gravity changes. I always thought the giant(ness) was from the environmental influence. Wide open and unfettered space and vegetation, with minimum predators for the huge beasts. Just theorizing though...

reply to post by Atzil321

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Man, I always wonder when seeing standing reptiles of that size, how did they oxygenate their blood? I mean, the distance from head to tail is enormous, the head alone is a enormous distance from their hearts, how did they get ample oxygen to their brains to function?

You hear of this "monster" ?

1.bp.blogspot.com...

www.google.de...:&imgrefurl=http://g renzwissenschaft-aktuell.blogspot.com/2008/02/fossilienfund-seemonster-auf.html&docid=eudwjV0rzeWbpM&imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WWUzaO9pYcA/R8VG YdF8cgI/AAAAAAAAEi8/5BPCOgTU4mU/s400/01687.jpg&w=400&h=236&ei=i4L7T-u1HMXNswaSr-DKBQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=322&sig=102979394360829069076&page=2&tbnh=120& tbnw=203&start=43&ndsp=56&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:43,i:212&tx=193&ty=40

Its has 15 Tons of bitecraft...such a lonely beast withoput enemies

Originally posted by SkullAndBeats235
You hear of this "monster" ?

1.bp.blogspot.com...

www.google.de...:&imgrefurl=http://g renzwissenschaft-aktuell.blogspot.com/2008/02/fossilienfund-seemonster-auf.html&docid=eudwjV0rzeWbpM&imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WWUzaO9pYcA/R8VG YdF8cgI/AAAAAAAAEi8/5BPCOgTU4mU/s400/01687.jpg&w=400&h=236&ei=i4L7T-u1HMXNswaSr-DKBQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=322&sig=102979394360829069076&page=2&tbnh=120& tbnw=203&start=43&ndsp=56&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:43,i:212&tx=193&ty=40

Its has 15 Tons of bitecraft...such a lonely beast withoput enemies

edit on 9-7-2012 by SkullAndBeats235 because: (no reason given)

In germany, its called "the Monster of Spitzbergen" have a look 4 yourself..iam a bit drunken

Great Thread by the way, since ive been a child i was so interested in Dinosaurs and stuff, good to see a Thread like this, greating from Germany peacE!

reply to post by Ilyich

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