Wildlife is full of amazing secrets and mysteries. Next to the largest creature on our planet, people will seem like small insects, and the smallest has such a tiny size that it is barely visible even under a microscope.
The largest creature on the planet
The largest animal living now and probably ever living on Earth is the blue or blue whale. The length of this giant can reach 33 meters, and its mass is 150-200 tons. While swimming, whales can accelerate to 50 km / h. Despite its impressive size, the blue whale is quite harmless. It feeds on plankton, crustaceans, small fish and molluscs. When a whale is hungry, it swims to the krill accumulation sites and opens its mouth wide, swallowing water along with food. The water is then released back. Because of their size, whales have to eat a lot - they consume up to 8 tons of plankton in one day. Despite the fact that the blue whale lives in the water, it belongs to the class of mammals. These animals reproduce slowly. Pregnancy lasts 10-12 months, the female gives birth to only one cub, its weight is 2-3 tons, and its length is 6-8 meters. Whales have long been the subject of hunting, they were killed for the sake of fat, meat, strong skin and whalebone, which was used in the manufacture of clothing. Also, their livestock has been greatly reduced due to ocean pollution from industrial waste. Whales are now a protected species, but due to the slow rate of reproduction, their numbers are still threatened.
Whales communicate using infrasound - such signals are heard at a distance of several kilometers.
The smallest creature on the planet
The smallest animal on Earth is one of the parasitic insects that live in the organisms of bedbugs and beetles. The Latin name for this creature is Dicopomorpha echmepterygis. The male insect measures 0.14 mm, which is even smaller than the size of some protozoa. Dicopomorpha females, like most insects, are much larger, about 1.5 times. These tiny animals parasitize the larvae of other insects, in particular the hay-eaters. Dicopomorpha males are blind, wingless, and even unable to walk on their own.
The life cycle of Dicopomorpha echmepterygis is very short - only a few days.
If we consider the living world as a whole, then the smallest creature will be mycoplasma. This type of living matter can no longer be attributed to animals. Mycoplasma is the simplest single-celled organism. It is so small that there is not even a nucleus in its cell. The size of these organisms is 0.3-0.8 microns. But despite these tiny numbers, mycoplasma can cause great harm to humans. This microbe is the causative agent of mycoplasmosis - a disease that leads to serious complications in the circulatory, genitourinary and immune systems.
