Largest organisms one of the largest and oldest clonal colonies on Earth. Among animals, the largest species are all marine mammals, specifically whales. The blue whale is believed to be the largest animal to have ever lived. The largest land animal classification is also dominated by mammals, with the African bush elephant being the most massive of these. The largest single-stem tree by wood volume and mass is the giant sequoia ("Sequoiadendron giganteum"), native to Sierra Nevada and California; it typically grows to a height of and in diameter. Multiple-stem trees such as banyan can be enormous. Thimmamma Marrimanu in India spreads
Largest prehistoric animals gruiform and largest phorusrhacid or "terror bird" (highly predatory, flightless birds of South America) was "Brontornis", which was about tall at the shoulder, could raise its head above the ground and could have weighed as much as . The immense phorushacid "Kelenken" stood tall with a skull long ( of which was beak), had the largest head of any known bird. The largest North American phorusrhacid is "Titanis", which is about tall, as tall as a forest elephant. The largest-known bird of prey ever was the enormous Haast's eagle ("Harpagornis moorei"), with a wingspan of , relatively short for their