Largest of Animals

1901

Mr. Beddard in his book on whales reminds readers that although imagination is apt to picture the giant reptiles of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods as having exceeded in size all modern animals yet in fact there is no evidence that the earth has ever contained either on the land or in the sea creatures exceeding the whale in bulk. The mammoth was larger than the elephant, but the ichthyosaurus could not match the whale for size, although with its terrible jaws it would doubtless have been the whale's master.