Is the blue whale really bigger than all of the dinosaurs ?

Question

In this video on yahoo homepage it says that "the blue whale was the biggest creature to ever exist on the earth"

How can this be true; What about dinosaurs ?

How big was the biggest dinosaur and how big is the blue whale ? http://video.yahoo.com/network/100000051?v=2354196&l=3904579

Answer 1

Yes indeed - the blue whale is indeed bigger than all of the dinosaurs put together.

Answer 2

I think the following will help you to understand why whales are so massive, even bigger than any dinosaur. On land there are limitations placed primarily due to gravity. The larger an animal becomes, the larger its bones, tendons and organs etc. need to be to support its bulk. There are survival reasons also for nature placing limitation on size: the bigger an animal is the more it must eat to sustain itself. However one group of dinosaurs, the sauropods are thought to be the size they are for advantageous reasons. Nevertheless scientists conclude that it is highly unlikely there has ever been a land creature of greater size than a blue whale. In the sea, there are no such constraints from gravity as water supports the bulk, and there is plentiful food supply for whales etc. so there are no such limitations on size. Now in the sea this has always been the case, so because there is simply not enough evidence to support the existence of an animal larger than a blue whale, then no such claim can be made. Part of the reason dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals were so much larger than today's animals is that there was a significantly higher oxygen content within the air, moreover the climatic, atmospheric and chemical composition of the environment was more conducive for larger species to exist in prehistoric times. This all said it CANNOT be ruled out that there MAY have been a dinosaur to rival the blue whale, but what I have just outlined makes it rather unlikely. Here is a link to a site that lists the largest dinosaurs, BUT you must remember that ALL this information is purely CONJECTURE and crude estimates based on small examples of fossilized body parts. Furthermore, it is not unreasonable to suggest that there are people out there that are only too willing to exaggerate, sensationalise  and overstate claims for prehistoric animals for their own benifit or otherwise. So you can browse that website with CARE. Now the Blue Whale irrefutably IS upto 110ft long and 150 tons in weight, it is likely that the largest specimens would exceed 200 tons based on extrapolation techniques. One point about that yahoo clip, a creature, by definition is a living organism and on that basis there are several SINGLE organisms that FAR exceed ANY animal from any period of time. (I have answered this very question from another answers member, feel free to browse my answers if you are curious of this). Finally here is the link for the dinosaur info  http://www.gavinrymill.com/dinosaurs/lar... Do you think some of those are exaggerated ?...

Answer 3

Yes, the blue whale is bigger than all dinosaurs and is the largest animal ever to have lived on Earth.

Don't forget that dinosaurs lived on land and had to support all of their weight via their skeleton, whereas the blue whale can grow bigger than dinosaurs as the water supports their weight and so they are able to grow to a greater size.

Answer 4

The largest creature to live on our planet, the blue whale. It's tongue weighs as much as an elephant. It's heart is the size of a small car. And some of it's blood vessels are so wide, you could swim in them. It's tail alone is the width of a small aircraft wing.

Answer 5

yes that is true.