What do you think is the longest animal in the world? Maybe a snake? Maybe some sort of giant eel? The truth is it is neither of those things. In fact, there was very little on this list that didn’t surprise me and I hope it surprises you as well…
Reticulated Python
10 – Reticulated Python – 24 Feet 7 Inches (7.5 Meters) in Length
The reticulated python is a snake species in the family Pythonidae native to South and Southeast Asia. It is the world’s longest snake and listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List because of its wide distribution.
Giant Oarfish
9 – Giant Oarfish – 26.25 Feet(8.0 Meters) in Length
The giant oarfish is a species of oarfish of the family Regalecidae. It is an oceanodromous species with a worldwide distribution, excluding polar regions. Other common names include Pacific oarfish, king of herrings, ribbonfish, and streamer fish. R. glesne is the world’s longest bony fish.
Giant Octopus
8 – Giant Octopus – 32.15 Feet (9.80 Meters) in Length
In 1802, the French malacologist Pierre Denys de Montfort in Histoire Naturelle Générale et Particulière des Mollusques, an encyclopedic description of molluscs, recognized the existence of two kinds of a giant octopus. One being the Kraken octopus, which Denys de Montfort believed had been described not only by Norwegian sailors and American whalers but also by ancient writers such as Pliny the Elder.
Basking Shark
7 – Basking Shark – 40.25 Feet (12.26 Meters) in Length
The basking shark is the second-largest living shark, after the whale shark, and one of three plankton-eating shark species, along with the whale shark and megamouth shark. Adults typically reach 6–8 m in length. They are usually greyish-brown, with mottled skin.
Giant Squid
6 – Giant Squid – 60 Feet (18.28 Meters) in Length
The giant squid is a deep-ocean dwelling squid in the family Architeuthidae. Giant squid can grow to a tremendous size due to deep-sea gigantism: recent estimates put the minimum size at 13 m for females and 10 m for males from the posterior fins to the tip of the two long tentacle. But the longest is indeed 60 Feet (18.28 Meters) in Length.
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Whale Shark
5 – Whale Shark – 61.68 Feet (18.80 Meters) in Length
The whale shark is a slow-moving, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of 18.8 m The whale shark holds many records for size in the animal kingdom, most notably being by far the largest living nonmammalian vertebrate.
Sperm Whale
4 – Sperm Whale – 78.74 Feet (24 Meters) in Length
The sperm whale or cachalot is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of genus Physeter and one of three extant species in the sperm whale family, along with the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale of the genus Kogia.
Blue Whale
3 – Blue Whale – 108.27 Feet (33 Meters) in Length
The blue whale is a marine mammal belonging to the baleen whale parvorder, Mysticeti. At up to 29.9 metres in length and with a maximum recorded weight of 173 tonnes, it is the largest animal known to have ever existed.
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Lion’s Mane Jellyfish
2 – Lion’s Mane Jellyfish – 121.4 Feet (37.0 Meters) in Length
The lion’s mane jellyfish, also known as the giant jellyfish or the hair jelly, is the largest known species of jellyfish. Its range is confined to cold, boreal waters of the Arctic, northern Atlantic, and northern Pacific Oceans.
Bootlace Worm
1 – Bootlace Worm – 180 Feet (55 Meters) in Length
n 1864 a specimen washed ashore in the aftermath of a severe storm by St Andrews, Scotland, which was more than 55 m (180 ft) long longer than the longest known Lion’s mane jellyfish, the animal which is often considered to be the longest in the world. However, records of extreme length should be taken with caution, because the bodies of nemerteans are flexible and can easily stretch to much more than their usual length.