As children, many of us learn about the wondrous process by which a caterpillar morphs into a butterfly. The story usually begins with a very hungry caterpillar hatching from an egg.
The Largest Animal Ever: The Blue Whale. The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales. At 30 metres (98 ft) in length and 180 metric tons (200 short tons) or more in weight, it is the largest known animal to have ever existed.
The largest known primate of all time was Gigantopithecus blackii, standing 3 m (9.8 ft) tall and weighing 540 kilograms (1,200 lb). The largest known old world monkey, the prehistoric baboon Dinopithecus grew even larger than modern Mandrills, weighing as much as a grown man.