Biggest animal on earth ever

[GuateGojira]

(09-30-2020, 07:09 PM)cheetah Wrote: The siphonophore threatens the blue whale in the largest animal on earth position.

These animals are the longest, but not even near the largest/heaviest on Earth, as in Biology the body mass is the true value of size, not length. In this case, even the longest of the siphonophorae is not bigger than an average cow, in body mass terms.

On April 6, 2020 the Schmidt Ocean Institute announced the discovery of a giant Apolemia siphonophore in submarine canyons near Ningaloo Coast, measuring 15 m (49 ft) diameter with a ring approximately 47 m (154 ft) long, possibly the largest siphonophore ever recorded.

However also Wikipedia article says about Siphonophorae: "Although a siphonophore may appear to be an individual organism, each specimen is in fact a colonial organism composed of medusoid and polypoid zooids that are morphologically and functionally specialized. Zooids are multicellular units that develop from a single fertilized egg and combine to create functional colonies able to reproduce, digest, float, maintain body positioning, and use jet propulsion to move. Most colonies are long, thin, transparent floaters living in the pelagic zone."

That means that these animals are in fact colonies of several organisms, not a single one, like the blue whale. Sadly, the news reports in the web exagerate the data and missinform the people. Reply