Re: the longest animal?

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 10:24 AM 3/18/98 +0100, Berislav Krzic wrote:
>
>A bit of trivia question to spice up the list: Does anybody know which
was/is the longest animal ever? 

The largest vertebrate for which we have complete material would be a blue
whale.  A complete adult Seismosaurus or Supersaurus (if such are ever
found) would almost certainly be longer.

As for invertebrates?  Hmmm... Architeuthis (giant squid) is the most
massive invertebrate known, but is there some other form which is even
longer?  Don't know... (Giant polychaetes?).

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661