The largest and smallest living creature of the planet
The largest and smallest living creature of the planet
The wildlife is full of amazing secrets and mysteries. Near the biggest creature of our planet, people seem small insects, and the smallest has such tiny dimensions that it is barely discernible even in a microscope.
The greatest creature on the planet
The largest animal living now and,probably, who lived ever on Earth, is a blue or blue whale. The length of this giant can reach 33 meters, and weight - 150-200 tons. During swimming, whales can accelerate to 50 km / h. Despite its impressive size, the blue whale is pretty harmless. It feeds on plankton, crustaceans, small fish and shellfish. When the whale is hungry, it swims to the places of the krill and opens its mouth wide, swallowing the water along with the food. The water is then released back. Due to their size, whales have to eat a lot - in one day they consume up to 8 tons of plankton. Despite the fact that the blue whale lives in water, it belongs to the class of mammals. These animals multiply slowly. Pregnancy lasts 10-12 months, the female gives birth to only one calf, its mass is 2-3 tons, and the length is 6-8 meters. For a long time, whales were 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 was greatly reduced due to industrial pollution of the ocean. Now whales are a protected species, but because of the slow rate of reproduction, their livestock is still in danger.Whales communicate with the help of infrasound - such signals are audible at a distance of several kilometers.
The smallest creature on the planet
The smallest animal on Earth is one of the mostspecies of riders, parasitic insects, living in the body of bugs and beetles. The Latin name of this creation is Dicopomorpha echmepterygis. Male insects have a size of 0.14 mm, this is even smaller than the size of some protozoa. Female Dicopomorpha, like most insects, is much larger, about 1.5 times. These tiny animals parasitize on the larvae of other insects, in particular, the hay-eaters. Dicopomorpha males are blind, have no wings and are not even able to move independently.The life cycle of Dicopomorpha echmepterygis is very short - just a few days.If we consider the living world as a whole,a small creature will be mycoplasma. This kind 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 kernel in its cage. The size of these organisms is 0.3-0.8 microns. But despite these tiny numbers, mycoplasma can bring great harm to a person. This microbe is the causative agent of mycoplasmosis, a disease that leads to serious complications in the blood, urinogenital and immune system.
