Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: What is the biggest land mammal?
The largest land mammal extant today is the African bush elephant. The largest extinct land mammal known was long considered to be "Paraceratherium orgosensis", a rhinoceros relative thought to have stood up to tall, measured over long and may have weighed about 17 tonnes. In 2015, a study suggested that one example of the proboscidean "Palaeoloxodon namadicus" may have been the largest land mammal ever, based on extensive research of fragmentary leg bone fossils from one individual, with a maximum estimated size of 22 tonnes.
The Asian elephant ("Elephas maximus"), also called Asiatic elephant, is the only living species of the genus "Elephas" and is distributed in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India and Nepal in the west to Borneo in the south. Three subspecies are recognised—"E. m. maximus" from Sri Lanka, "E. m. indicus" from mainland Asia and "E. m. sumatranus" from the island of Sumatra. The Asian elephant is the largest living land animal in Asia.
In terms of volume, the largest lake in California is Lake Tahoe, located on the California–Nevada border. The area in and around Lake Tahoe is filled with a huge diversity of animals and plants. Many mammals call the Lake Tahoe area home. Included among these are the yellow-bellied marmot, the Douglas squirrel or chickaree, golden-mantled ground squirrel, American martin, mule deer, black bear, coyote, raccoon, beaver, and porcupine.
Rodents make up the largest order of mammals, with over 40 percent of mammalian species. They have two incisors in the upper and lower jaw which grow continually and must be kept short by gnawing. Most rodents are small though the capybara, a rodent native to South America, can weigh up to 45 kg (100 lb).
Founded in 1927, the zoo is home to a wide selection of mammals and reptiles of the North America region and all over the world, including some endangered species. At one time, Space Farms was host to the largest bear in captivity in the world, a Kodiak bear named Goliath. The 2,000-pound (900 kg) Goliath still stands tall in front of a diverse taxidermy exhibit in the main hall of the museum. He was preserved in an imposing upright position after his death in 1991. His abnormally large skull is upstairs, where one can compare it to skulls of other animals.
An average adult male measures in length, and stands tall at the shoulder. The largest recorded wild male weighed , and had a hind foot measurement of . A large male Kodiak bear stands up to tall at the shoulder, when it is standing on all four legs. When standing fully upright on its hind legs, a large male could reach a height of . The largest verified size for a captive Kodiak bear was for a specimen that lived at the Dakota Zoo in Bismarck, North Dakota. Nicknamed "Clyde," he weighed when he died in June 1987 at the age of 22. According to zoo director Terry Lincoln, Clyde probably weighed close to a year earlier. He still had a fat layer of when he died.
One species of African elephant, the bush elephant, is the largest living terrestrial animal, while the forest elephant is the third-largest. Their thickset bodies rest on stocky legs, and they have concave backs. Their large ears enable heat loss. The upper lip and nose form a trunk. The trunk acts as a fifth limb, a sound amplifier, and an important method of touch. African elephants' trunks end in two opposing lips, whereas the Asian elephant trunk ends in a single lip. In "L. africana", males stand tall at the shoulder and weigh , while females stand tall and weigh ; "L. cyclotis" is smaller with male shoulder heights of up to . The largest recorded individual stood at the shoulder and weighed . The tallest recorded individual stood at the shoulder and weighed .
The Permian era "Cotylorhynchus", from what is now the southern United States, probably was the largest of all synapsids (most of which became extinct 250 million years ago), at and 2 tonnes. The largest carnivorous synapsid was "Anteosaurus" from what is now South Africa during Middle Permian era. "Anteosaurus" was long, and weighed about .The largest living reptile, a representative of the order Crocodilia, is the saltwater crocodile ("Crocodylus porosus") of Southern Asia and Australia, with adult males being typically long. The largest confirmed saltwater crocodile on record was long, and weighed about . Unconfirmed reports of much larger crocodiles exist, but examinations of incomplete remains have never suggested a length greater than . Also, a living specimen estimated at and has been accepted by the Guinness Book of World Records. However, due to the difficulty of trapping and measuring a very large living crocodile, the accuracy of these dimensions has yet to be verified. A specimen named Lolong caught alive in the Philippines in 2011 (died February 2013) was found to have measured in length.
Cassius is a male saltwater crocodile ("Crocodylus porosus") recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world's largest crocodile in captivity in 2011. The animal measures in length, weighs approximately and is estimated to be more than 110 years old. Kept at the Marineland Crocodile Park, a zoo on Green Island, Queensland, Australia, Cassius was officially recognized by Guinness in 2011, but lost the title in 2012 to Lolong, a saltwater crocodile caught in the southern Philippines. Cassius again holds the record since Lolong's death in 2013.
The Bhitarkanika Mangroves are home to 55 of India's 58 known mangrove species. The mangroves harbor one of India's largest populations of saltwater crocodiles, and Gahirmatha Beach, which separates the mangroves from the Bay of Bengal, is the world's most important nesting beach for olive ridley sea turtles. Some wildlife experts are of the opinion that the largest saltwater crocodile ever was in Bhitarkanika, measuring an estimated 23 feet (7.0 m) which could be traced from the skull preserved by the Kanika Royal Family. The crocodile was shot near Dhamara in 1926, and later its skull was preserved by the then Kanika King. Crocodile experts estimate the animal to have been between 20 feet (6.1 m) and 23 feet (7.0 m) long, as the size of the skull was measured one ninth of the total length of the body. In 2006 the park was recognized by the "Guinness Book of World Records" for the largest white crocodile living in captivity also measuring 23 feet. The wetland also hosts a large and diverse population of resident and migratory birds. Rhesus monkey, leopard cat, fishing cat, jungle cat, small Indian civet cat, toddy cat, common mongoose, jackal, striped hyena, Indian fox, wild pig, Indian porcupine, mole rat, long tailed tree mouse, spotted deer, sambar, common otter, smooth Indian otter are also found here.
The largest living reptile, a representative of the order Crocodilia, is the saltwater crocodile ("Crocodylus porosus") of Southern Asia and Australia, with adult males being typically long. The largest confirmed saltwater crocodile on record was long, and weighed about . Unconfirmed reports of much larger crocodiles exist, but examinations of incomplete remains have never suggested a length greater than . A living specimen estimated at and has been accepted by the Guinness Book of World Records, but due to the difficulty of trapping and measuring a very large living crocodile, the accuracy of these dimensions has yet to be verified. A specimen caught alive in the Philippines in 2011 (now dead) was found to have measured in length.
The heaviest known cephalopod, and the largest living invertebrate, is the colossal squid. The largest recorded specimen of this species, caught in the Ross Sea in 2007, weighed . However, its beak is not the largest known from this species; even bigger colossal squid beaks have been recovered from the stomachs of sperm whales, indicating that this species can grow larger still.
Lolong (died 10 February 2013) was the largest crocodile in captivity. He was a saltwater crocodile ("Crocodylus porosus") measured at , and weighed , making him one of the largest crocodiles ever measured from snout-to-tail.
The Bornean orangutan is the third-heaviest living primate after the two species of gorilla, and the largest truly arboreal (or tree-dwelling) animal alive today. Body weights broadly overlap with the considerably taller "Homo sapiens", but the latter is considerably more variable in size. By comparison, the Sumatran orangutan is similar in size but, on average, is marginally lighter in weight. A survey of wild orangutans found that males weigh on average , ranging from , and long; females average , ranging from , and long. While in captivity, orangutans can grow considerably overweight, up to more than . The heaviest known male orangutan in captivity was an obese male named "Andy", who weighed in 1959 when he was 13 years old.
Eurasian beavers are one of the largest living species of rodents and are the largest rodent native to Eurasia. They weigh around . In Norway, adult males average while females average , while another study found adults from the same country to average . By the average weights known, the Eurasian beaver appears to be the world's second heaviest rodent behind the capybara, but averaging slightly larger and heavier than the North American beaver. While the largest specimen confirmed on record weighed , the Smithsonian has reported that this species can exceptionally exceed . Typically, the head-and-body length is and the tail length is .
It is a very large bear, the largest in Eurasia, with a body length of 2.4 meters, to 3 meters tall on hind legs and a weight up to 650 kg (1433 lbs). It is nearly the size of the Kodiak bear; however, the skull is broader than that of the Ussuri brown bear, and compared to that of the Kodiak bear, the breadth of the skull is much greater in proportion to its length, the anterior narial opening is much shorter, and the molars differ in relative size and form. The greatest skull length for males is 40.3–43.6 cm and 25.8–27.7 cm wide, while the skulls of females measure 37.2–38.6 cm in length and 21.6–24.2 cm in width. Fur colour is predominantly dark brown with a violet tint. Light coloured individuals are rarely encountered.
The world record for the heaviest pig so far is held by Big Bill, owned by Elias Buford Butler of Jackson, Tennessee. It was a Poland China breed of hog that tipped the scales at 2,552 lb (1,157 kg) in 1933. Bill was due to be exhibited at the Chicago World Fair when he broke a leg and had to be put down. At about this point in time, the trend in hog production began to shift to hogs that were much trimmer and very lean.
The largest Indian elephant was high at the shoulder. In 1985, two large elephant bulls were spotted for the first time in Bardia National Park, and named "Raja Gaj" and "Kanchha". They roamed the park area together and occasionally visited female herds. "Raja Gaj" stood tall at the shoulder and had a massive body weight. His forehead and domes were more prominent than in other Asian bull elephants. His appearance has been compared to that of a Stegodon and mammoth due to his high bi-domed shaped head.
The giant hutias are an extinct group of large rodents known from fossil and subfossil material in the West Indies. One species, "Amblyrhiza inundata", is estimated to have weighed between , big specimens being as large as an American black bear. This is twice as large as the capybara, the largest rodent living today, but still much smaller than "Josephoartigasia monesi", the largest rodent known. These animals were probably used as a food source by aboriginal humans. All giant hutias are in a single family, Heptaxodontidae, which contains no living species; this grouping seems to be paraphyletic and artificial, however.
Josephoartigasia monesi, an extinct species of South American caviomorph rodent, is the largest rodent known, and lived from about 4 to 2 million years ago during the Pliocene to early Pleistocene. The species is one of two in the genus "Josephoartigasia", the other being "J. magna". "J. monesi" is sometimes called the giant pacarana, after its closest living relative, the pacarana ("Dinomys branickii") in the family Dinomyidae. The species may have weighed a ton, considerably larger than any living rodent.
The giant koala was an arboreal marsupial weighing about 13 kg, a little more than modern koalas. It is the largest known tree dwelling marsupial ever to have lived. Scientists say there is a clear similarity between the physical appearance of "P. stirtoni" and the modern koala. It is assumed that the giant koala was a folivore which was specialised to feed on eucalyptus leaves, like its extant relative.
The European Land Mammal Mega Zones (abbreviation: ELMMZ, more commonly known as European land mammal ages or ELMA) are zones in rock layers that have a specific assemblage of fossils (biozones) based on occurrences of fossil assemblages of European land mammals. These biozones cover most of the Neogene and Paleogene systems (i.e. rock layers which are 65.5 to 2.588 million years old). In cases when fossils of mammals are abundant, stratigraphers and paleontologists can use these biozones as a more practical regional alternative to the stages of the official ICS geologic timescale. European Land Mammal Mega Zones are often also confusingly referred to as ages, stages, or intervals.
The Proboscidea (from the Greek and the Latin "proboscis") are a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family (Elephantidae) and several extinct families. This order, first described by J. Illiger in 1811, encompasses the trunked mammals. In addition to their enormous size, later proboscideans are distinguished by tusks and long, muscular trunks; these features were less developed or absent in the smaller early proboscideans. Beginning in the mid Miocene, most members of this order were very large animals. The largest land mammal today is the African elephant weighing up to 10.4 tonnes with a shoulder height of up to . The largest land mammal of all time may have also been a proboscidean: "Palaeoloxodon namadicus", which may have weighed up to with a shoulder height of up to , surpassing several sauropod dinosaurs (in height).
Most mammals, including the six most species-rich orders, belong to the placental group. The three largest orders in numbers of species are Rodentia: mice, rats, porcupines, beavers, capybaras and other gnawing mammals; Chiroptera: bats; and Soricomorpha: shrews, moles and solenodons. The next three biggest orders, depending on the biological classification scheme used, are the Primates including the apes, monkeys and lemurs; the Cetartiodactyla including whales and even-toed ungulates; and the Carnivora which includes cats, dogs, weasels, bears, seals and allies. According to "Mammal Species of the World", 5,416 species were identified in 2006. These were grouped into 1,229 genera, 153 families and 29 orders. In 2008, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) completed a five-year Global Mammal Assessment for its IUCN Red List, which counted 5,488 species. According to a research published in the "Journal of Mammalogy" in 2018, the number of recognized mammal species is 6,495 species included 96 recently extinct.
Asian land mammal ages are more recently named and more tentative than the ages for the above continents, with poor geochronological constraints. There is no consensus for the names of some of the ages. However, the picture is rapidly improving, since Central Asia has some of the world's best records of Neogene mammals. In Africa, sequences of fossils (including those of primates) have been determined and some land mammal ages designated, but not yet formally defined.