HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

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 A body part is a part of an animal body. Body part, Body Parts, or Bodyparts may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Body Parts'' (film), a 1991 film starring Paul Ben-Victor and Kim Delaney * "Body Parts" (''Star Trek: Deep Space ...
within an existing
species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), 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 largest animals on the planet are not the only ones to have large body parts, with some smaller animals actually having one particularly enlarged area of the body.


Living animals


Blue whale

As the largest animal that has existed, 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 b ...
has the largest instance of several body parts. * Its
tongue The tongue is a muscular organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for mastication and swallowing as part of the digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper surface (dorsum) is covered by taste b ...
weighs around . * Its
mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on t ...
is large enough to hold up to of food and water. * Its
heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to ...
typically weighs and can reach in exceptional cases * Its
aorta The aorta ( ) is the main and largest artery in the human body, originating from the left ventricle of the heart and extending down to the abdomen, where it splits into two smaller arteries (the common iliac arteries). The aorta distributes ...
is about in diameter. * The blue whale's penis typically measures 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in) to 3 metres (9.8 ft) and a diameter of 30 centimetres (12 in) to 36 centimetres (14 in).


Other animals

* The
giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...
and
colossal squid The colossal squid (''Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni'') is part of the family Cranchiidae. It is sometimes called the Antarctic squid or giant cranch squid and is believed to be the largest squid species in terms of mass. It is the only recognize ...
s have the largest recorded
eyes Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conve ...
of any living animal, with a maximum diameter of at least . Only the extinct
ichthyosaur Ichthyosaurs (Ancient Greek for "fish lizard" – and ) are large extinct marine reptiles. Ichthyosaurs belong to the order known as Ichthyosauria or Ichthyopterygia ('fish flippers' – a designation introduced by Sir Richard Owen in 1842, altho ...
s are known to have had larger eyes. * The
giraffe The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa''. It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. Traditionally, giraffes were thought to be one species, ''Giraffa camelopardalis ...
has the longest
neck The neck is the part of the body on many vertebrates that connects the head with the torso. The neck supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that carry sensory and motor information from the brain down to the rest of the body. In ...
of any land mammal. * The
north Pacific right whale The North Pacific right whale (''Eubalaena japonica'') is a very large, thickset baleen whale species that is extremely rare and endangered. The Northeast Pacific population, which summers in the southeastern Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, may ...
has the largest
testes A testicle or testis (plural testes) is the male reproductive gland or gonad in all bilaterians, including humans. It is homologous to the female ovary. The functions of the testes are to produce both sperm and androgens, primarily testost ...
of any mammal. * The
walrus The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the fami ...
has the largest
baculum The baculum (also penis bone, penile bone, or ''os penis'', ''os genitale'' or ''os priapi'') is a bone found in the penis of many placental mammals. It is absent from the human penis, but present in the penises of some primates, such as the ...
of any mammal. * The
wandering albatross The wandering albatross, snowy albatross, white-winged albatross or goonie (''Diomedea exulans'') is a large seabird from the family Diomedeidae, which has a circumpolar range in the Southern Ocean. It was the last species of albatross to be descr ...
has the largest wingspan at . * The longest horns ever recorded belonged to a
wild water buffalo The wild water buffalo (''Bubalus arnee''), also called Asian buffalo, Asiatic buffalo and wild buffalo, is a large bovine native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It has been listed as ''Endangered'' in the IUCN Red List since 198 ...
and measured from tip to tip. * The largest and heaviest brain belongs to the
sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus '' Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale fami ...
, weighing around 9 kilograms. * The Arctic
lion's mane jellyfish The lion's mane jellyfish (''Cyanea capillata''), also known as the giant jellyfish, arctic red jellyfish, or the hair jelly, is one of the largest known species of jellyfish. Its range is confined to cold, boreal waters of the Arctic, norther ...
may be the longest animal; the biggest had a bell (body) with a diameter of and the tentacles reached . It was found washed up on the shore of Massachusetts Bay in 1870. *
Bootlace worm The bootlace worm (''Lineus longissimus'') is a species of ribbon worm and one of the longest known animals, with specimens up to long being reported, although this has not been confirmed. Its mucus is highly toxic. Taxonomy The bootlace worm ...
s can reach great lengths. A specimen was measured at but this may be unreliable as the body is somewhat elastic.


In proportion to body size

* The Morgan's sphinx hawk moth has the longest
proboscis A proboscis () is an elongated appendage from the head of an animal, either a vertebrate or an invertebrate. In invertebrates, the term usually refers to tubular mouthparts used for feeding and sucking. In vertebrates, a proboscis is an elong ...
in relation to its body size. Its 25–30 cm proboscis is over 3 times longer than its body. It is also known as Darwin's moth because Charles Darwin predicted its existence some 40 years before it was discovered from experiments he did on an orchid with a "foot long" nectary. * The tube-lipped nectar bat has the longest tongue of any mammal in relation to its body size. Its tongue is 1.5 times longer than its body, and must be kept inside its rib cage. * The
barnacle A barnacle is a type of arthropod constituting the subclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacea, and is hence related to crabs and lobsters. Barnacles are exclusively marine, and tend to live in shallow and tidal waters, typically in erosive ...
is the creature with the largest
penis A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males do no ...
as a proportion of its body size. * Among vertebrates, the Argentine blue-bill duck has the longest penis in relation to its body size. * The
vampire squid The vampire squid (''Vampyroteuthis infernalis'', lit. 'vampire squid from hell') is a small cephalopod found throughout temperate and tropical oceans in extreme deep sea conditions. The vampire squid uses its bioluminescent organs and its uniq ...
has the largest eyes of any animal relative to its size. * The
kiwi Kiwi most commonly refers to: * Kiwi (bird), a flightless bird native to New Zealand * Kiwi (nickname), a nickname for New Zealanders * Kiwifruit, an edible berry * Kiwi dollar or New Zealand dollar, a unit of currency Kiwi or KIWI may also ref ...
lays the largest egg of any bird relative to its size up to a quarter of the mass of the female. *
Shrew Shrews (family Soricidae) are small mole-like mammals classified in the order Eulipotyphla. True shrews are not to be confused with treeshrews, otter shrews, elephant shrews, West Indies shrews, or marsupial shrews, which belong to differen ...
s have the largest brain-to-body mass ratio of any animal, with brains that are 10% of body weight. Humans however have the largest
encephalization quotient Encephalization quotient (EQ), encephalization level (EL), or just encephalization is a relative brain size measure that is defined as the ratio between observed to predicted brain mass for an animal of a given size, based on nonlinear regress ...
of any animal. * Dogs have the largest heart-to-body mass ratio.


Humans

* The longest bone in the human body is the
femur The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates with ...
. * The largest
artery An artery (plural arteries) () is a blood vessel in humans and most animals that takes blood away from the heart to one or more parts of the body (tissues, lungs, brain etc.). Most arteries carry oxygenated blood; the two exceptions are the p ...
is the
aorta The aorta ( ) is the main and largest artery in the human body, originating from the left ventricle of the heart and extending down to the abdomen, where it splits into two smaller arteries (the common iliac arteries). The aorta distributes ...
and the largest
vein Veins are blood vessels in humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenated ...
is the
inferior vena cava The inferior vena cava is a large vein that carries the deoxygenated blood from the lower and middle body into the right atrium of the heart. It is formed by the joining of the right and the left common iliac veins, usually at the level of the ...
. * The largest internal organ (by mass) is the
liver The liver is a major organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for digestion and growth. In humans, it i ...
, with an average of . * The largest external organ, which is also the largest organ in general, is the
skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different de ...
. * The longest muscle is the
sartorius muscle The sartorius muscle () is the longest muscle in the human body. It is a long, thin, superficial muscle that runs down the length of the thigh in the anterior compartment. Structure The sartorius muscle originates from the anterior superior ilia ...
in the
thigh In human anatomy, the thigh is the area between the hip (pelvis) and the knee. Anatomically, it is part of the lower limb. The single bone in the thigh is called the femur. This bone is very thick and strong (due to the high proportion of bone ...
. * The longest single nerve is the
sciatic nerve The sciatic nerve, also called the ischiadic nerve, is a large nerve in humans and other vertebrate animals which is the largest branch of the sacral plexus and runs alongside the hip joint and down the lower limb. It is the longest and widest si ...
in the thigh, counting its branches and
axons An axon (from Greek ἄξων ''áxōn'', axis), or nerve fiber (or nerve fibre: see spelling differences), is a long, slender projection of a nerve cell, or neuron, in vertebrates, that typically conducts electrical impulses known as action po ...
.


Individual human records

* The person with the longest tongue is Nick Stoeberl of
Salinas, California Salinas (; Spanish for "Salt Marsh or Salt Flats") is a city in California and the county seat of Monterey County. With a population of 163,542 in the 2020 Census, Salinas is the most populous city in Monterey County. Salinas is an urban area ...
, United States, whose tongue measures . * The woman with the longest legs is Svetlana Pankratova. At a height of , her legs measure . * The woman with the longest fingernails is
Lee Redmond Lee Redmond (born February 2, 1941) is an American woman who held the record in the ''Guinness World Records'' for longest fingernails on both hands. ''Guinness World Records'' The '' Enquirer'' featured her every few years and kept track of ...
. The total length of her fingernails is 7.513 meters. The person with the longest fingernails on one hand is
Shridhar Chillal Shridhar Chillal (born 29 January 1937) is an Indian man from the city of Pune, who held the world record for the longest fingernails ever reached on a single hand, with a combined length of 909.6 centimeters (358.1 inches). Chillal's longest s ...
, the woman with the longest fingernails on one hand is Ayanna Williams. * The longest head of hair belonged to Xie Qiuping of China and measured on 8 May 2004. * The longest
beard A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, usually pubescent or adult males are able to grow beards. Throughout the course of history, societal at ...
ever measured belonged to Hans Langseth of
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and th ...
; at his death in 1927 it was long. * The longest ear hair belongs to Victor Anthony of India, measuring 18.1 centimetres (7.12 inches).Longest Ear Hair
. Guinness World Records. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
* The largest
feet The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...
belonged to
Matthew McGrory Matthew McGrory (May 17, 1973 – August 9, 2005) was an American actor. At , he was recognized as the tallest actor by Guinness World Records. He portrayed physically imposing characters throughout his career, including Tiny Firefly in the horr ...
. His left foot measured and he wore size 29 1/2 shoes.


Extinct animals

* The animals with the longest necks, up to in some cases, were
plesiosaur The Plesiosauria (; Greek: πλησίος, ''plesios'', meaning "near to" and ''sauros'', meaning "lizard") or plesiosaurs are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared ...
s (such as ''
Elasmosaurus ''Elasmosaurus'' (;) is a genus of plesiosaur that lived in North America during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 80.5million years ago. The first specimen was discovered in 1867 near Fort Wallace, Kansas, US, and was sen ...
'' and '' Mauisaurus'') and
sauropod Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their b ...
dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23  million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is ...
s (such as ''
Mamenchisaurus ''Mamenchisaurus'' (or spelling pronunciation ) is a genus of sauropod dinosaur known for their remarkably long necks which made up nearly half the total body length. Numerous species have been assigned to the genus; however, many of these might ...
'', ''
Sauroposeidon ''Sauroposeidon'' ( ; meaning "lizard earthquake god", after the Greek god Poseidon) is a genus of sauropod dinosaur known from several incomplete specimens including a bone bed and fossilized trackways that have been found in the U.S. states of ...
'', and ''
Supersaurus ''Supersaurus'' (meaning "super lizard") is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. The type species, ''S. vivianae'', was first discovered by Vivian Jones of Delta, Colorado, in the ...
'').


See also

*
Largest organism 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. Some organisms group together to form a superorganism (such as ants ...
* Largest prehistoric organisms * Giant animal (disambiguation) * The "strongest" human muscle


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Largest Body Part Animal anatomy Largest things