Blue whale
Up to 30 m and 150+ tonnes
The largest animal known to have ever existed — heavier than the biggest dinosaurs. Its heart alone is the size of a small car and its tongue can weigh as much as an elephant.
Full blue whale guide →HideShark list
The biggest animals in the world
These are the giants — the animals that hold size records in their part of the tree of life. The list is ordered roughly by overall mass, and each entry notes exactly which record it holds.
-
1 -
2 Whale shark
The biggest fish — up to ~18–20 m
A gentle, spotted filter feeder and the largest fish alive by a wide margin. Despite the size it eats plankton and is completely harmless to swimmers.
Full whale shark guide → -
3 African elephant
The biggest land animal — up to 7 tonnes
The largest animal that walks on land, with a 40,000-muscle trunk and the longest pregnancy of any mammal at 22 months.
Full african elephant guide → -
4 Orca
The biggest dolphin — up to 8 m
The largest member of the dolphin family and the ocean’s apex predator, hunting in coordinated pods that even kill great white sharks.
Full orca guide → -
5 Giraffe
The tallest animal — up to 5.7 m
Not the heaviest, but the tallest land animal, with a heart built to pump blood two metres straight up to the brain.
Full giraffe guide → -
6 Saltwater crocodile
The biggest reptile — 5.5 m+
The largest living reptile and the animal with the strongest bite force ever measured. Large males cross open ocean between islands.
Full saltwater crocodile guide → -
7 Great white shark
The biggest predatory fish — up to 6 m
The largest hunting fish in the sea, and partly warm-blooded, which lets it chase seals in cold water at up to 40 km/h.
Full great white shark guide → -
8 Hippopotamus
Third-heaviest land animal — up to 3 tonnes
After the elephant and rhino, the hippo is the largest animal on land, and one of the most dangerous in Africa.
Full hippopotamus guide → -
9 Polar bear
The biggest land carnivore — up to 600+ kg
The largest bear and the largest predator that spends its life on land and ice, built entirely around hunting seals.
Full polar bear guide → -
10 Ostrich
The biggest bird — up to 2.7 m and 150 kg
Far too heavy to fly, the ostrich is instead the fastest bird on land, sprinting at 70 km/h, and it lays the largest egg of any living bird.
Full ostrich guide → -
11 Komodo dragon
The biggest lizard — up to 3 m
A venomous, 90 kg monitor lizard found on just five Indonesian islands, able to bring down water buffalo.
Full komodo dragon guide → -
12 Reticulated python
The longest snake — verified to 6.95 m
The longest snake in the world, a non-venomous constrictor that swims between islands and lives close to people across Southeast Asia.
Full reticulated python guide → -
13 Green anaconda
The heaviest snake — 100+ kg
Shorter than the reticulated python but roughly twice the weight, this South American constrictor ambushes capybara and caiman from the water.
Full green anaconda guide → -
14 Goliath birdeater
The heaviest spider — up to 175 g
A rainforest tarantula the size of a dinner plate, with 2-centimetre fangs and a cloud of barbed defensive hairs it kicks at attackers.
Full goliath birdeater guide →
The Biggest Animals in the World: common questions
What is the biggest animal in the world?
The blue whale. At up to 30 metres long and over 150 tonnes it is the largest animal known to have ever lived, bigger than any dinosaur. The African elephant is the largest land animal, and the whale shark is the largest fish.
What is the biggest land animal?
The African elephant, at up to about 7 tonnes and 4 metres tall at the shoulder. The giraffe is taller — up to 5.7 metres — but much lighter.
Is the blue whale bigger than any dinosaur?
Yes. The blue whale outweighs even the largest known long-necked sauropod dinosaurs. Some dinosaurs may have been longer, but none came close to the blue whale’s mass.