Talking about the largest organism is a complex task. First of all, we need to specify exactly what we mean by “big”. Is it the heaviest or the largest, even though it is lighter? An African elephant weighs up to six tons, but its height rarely exceeds three meters; while the giraffe , weighing one-sixth as much as the elephant, is almost twice as tall. Depending on whether we consider the weight or the size “great”, the first prize for terrestrial animals would be disputed between these two.
However, we do have animals that are much larger than the elephant or the giraffe—taking both parameters into account—in the sea.
The blue whale falls short
The blue whale with 180 tons of weight is, without a doubt, the heaviest animal that currently exists. If we take into account its 33 meters in length , it is also the longest mammal. However, there are other animals in the sea that are longer than the blue giant, although they are much lighter.
The largest lion’s mane jellyfish found had a body that exceeded two meters in diameter, gigantic for a jellyfish, but miniature compared to the colossal body of the whale. However, its tentacles, fine as hair, reach a length of 36.5 meters , thus surpassing the longest of the whales. And there is still an animal that surpasses this huge jellyfish.
The longest known animal in the world is a nemertean worm commonly called the bootlace worm, Lineus longissimus . Its body measures between 8 and 10 millimeters in diameter, that of a human little finger, but in length specimens of up to 55 meters have been found . Although the body of these animals is quite flexible, and it is difficult to know if that length is at rest or stretched in some way, even if it were, the actual length at rest would still exceed 36.5 meters of the lion’s mane jellyfish.
But of course not all living things are animals. And all of them, whales, nemertean worms or giant jellyfish, are overshadowed by the greatness of some species of trees .
A forest is bigger than a single tree
It is not clear which species of tree may become the largest. We only see the aerial part of a tree, but a large part of the plant, the root system, remains buried in the ground and is very difficult to measure.
The three species of trees that reach the highest height are, in this order, the sequoiadendron ( Sequoiadendron giganteum ), the gumtree ( Eucalyptus regnans ) and the sequoia ( Sequoia sempervirens ).
The tallest sequoiadendron on record is the General Sherman , which is 84 meters high and is located in the Sequoia National Park in California. Above it is Centurión , the largest known example of Eucalyptus Gomeran, with more than 100 meters . It is the largest known flowering tree.
Among the redwoods there are even larger specimens. The specimen named Icarus , with 113.4 meters, is the third largest known tree; He is ahead of him by Helios , with 114.58 meters, and ahead of him, the gold medal is received by Hyperion , with 115.85 meters in height , the living tree with the largest aerial part of which we have evidence.
Hyperión is a relatively young tree, and there is the possibility that some other of its congeners, or some Eucalyptus from La Gomera, has a more developed root system. At the moment it is not possible to know which tree has the largest total size —counting the aerial part and the underground part.
But even these titans are not the largest living organisms. In the center of the State of Utah is an organism even larger than Hyperion , whose size exceeds 43 hectares in area . A living being of colossal size, equivalent to the extension of the Parque de María Luisa, in Seville -Plaza de España included- would attract the attention of anyone, if it were not because in reality it is not seen as an organism but as a group of them. More specifically a forest.
This is Pando , a clonal colony of trembling aspen ( Populus tremuloides ), which although it looks like a massive set of trees, all are, in fact, the same genetically identical individual and formed by a massive network of interconnected roots, with multiple trunks. Specifically, it is a male of more than 6,000 tons of estimated weight .
Rivaling Pando , the largest specimen of Posidonia oceanica is found on the Balearic coast. It is a single organism that measures around fifteen kilometers in length, although in this case, measuring its extension or its weight is much more difficult. What we do know is that, with an estimated age of about 100,000 years, it is one of the longest living beings in the world.
But neither Pando nor the Balearic specimen of Posidonia are, in reality, the largest living organism in the world.
The largest: a fungus
The largest and heaviest organism in the world is not a plant, but a fungus. It is located in the Malheur National Forest, in eastern Oregon.
Five large extensions dominated by fungi of the Armillaria ostoyae species, a fungus that parasitizes plant roots, have been located in this region.
Fungi can grow massively underground, expanding their mycelia and colonizing plant roots on their way, and they only become evident when they produce the fruiting bodies, with a reproductive function, that we call mushrooms.
Genetic studies have shown that these five extensions are populated by a single individual each. In the case of the largest, called the Gigantic Fungus ( Humongous Fungus in English), it extends over more than 9 square kilometers , equivalent to the sum of the municipalities of Portugalete and Santurtzi.
It is estimated that this fungus weighs between 7,500 and 35 000 tons ; which is equivalent, at least, to the weight of all the inhabitants of the city of Orense, and at most, of Malaga. Even in the most conservative estimate, it is already heavier than Pando , so we are looking at the largest living being in the world, in size and weight.
REFERENCES:
DeWoody, J. et al. 2008. “Pando” Lives: Molecular Genetic Evidence of a Giant Aspen Clone in Central Utah. Western North American Naturalist, 68 (4), 493-497. DOI: 10.3398 / 1527-0904-68.4.493
Ferguson, B. A. et al. 2003. Coarse-scale population structure of pathogenic Armillaria species in a mixed-conifer forest in the Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 33: 612-623. DOI: 10.1139/x03-065
Hickman, CP et al. 2021. Comprehensive principles of Zoology (F. Pardos Martínez, Trad.). EDRA.
Schmitt, C. L. et al. 2008. Location of the World’s Largest Living Organism [The Humongous Fungus] (The Malheur National Forest, p. 8). USDA.
