NATURAL WORLD
Longest Tongue
British chauffeur Stephen Taylor has a tongue that measures a gob-smacking 9.4 cm (3.7 in) from the tip to the center of his closed top lip. Not only can he touch his nose with his tongue – he can drive it right up his nostril!
Largest Outdoor Spiders' Web
In October, 1998, a cobweb that covered the entire 4.54-ha (11.2-acre) playing field at Kineton High School, Warwick, England, was discovered by Ken Thompson - the school’s caretaker. It had been created by thousands of black money spiders.
Fastest Land Bird
Despite weighing a massive 136 kg (300 lb), standing a mighty 2.4 m (8 ft) tall, and only having only two toes on each foot, the ostrich (Struthio camelus) can shoot across the African savannah at up to 72 kmph (45 mph), making it the fastest bird on land.
Largest Carnivore
A skeleton of the largest carnivorous dinosaur was discovered in Neuquen, Patagonia, Argentina in 1995. This dinosaur Giganotosaurus carolinii was 12.5 m (40 ft) long, and weighed 8 tonnes. The bones suggest it resembled Tyrannosaurus rex but was taller and more heavily built than T-rex. Ruben Carolini, whose hobby is hunting dinosaur bones, originally found the fossil in the Patagonia region of Argentina. Rodolfo Coria, an Argentinean paleontologist then excavated the creature's remains. In honor of Ruben Carolini, the huge dinosaur was named Giganotosaurus carolinii by Coria in 1995.
Heaviest Raccoon
A raccoon named Bandit, owned by Deborah 'Pepper' Klitsch of Palmerton, Pennsylvania, USA, weighed a record 29.4 kg 64.9 lb as of March 28, 2001. The average racoon only weighs 800-1,100g 1.75-2.5lbs!
Brightest Planet
Viewed from Earth, the brightest of the five planets normally visible to the naked eye (Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, and Venus) is Venus, which has a maximum magnitude of -4.4. In clear conditions, and if you know where to look, Venus can often be viewed during the day. The planet is often at the root of supposed UFO sightings. A thick white blanket of clouds perpetually shroud this rocky planet, hiding the surface from view.
Largest Galaxy
The central galaxy of the Abell 2029 galaxy cluster, 1070 million light years distant in Virgo, has a major diameter of 5,600,000 light years - 80 times the diameter of our own Milky Way galaxy.
Driest Place
For the period between 1964 and 2001, the average annual rainfall at the meteorological station in Quillagua, in the Atacama Desert, Chile, was just 0.5mm. This discovery was made during the making of the documentary series Going to Extremes, by Keo Films in 2001.
Greatest Flood
The largest freshwater flood occurred 18,000 years ago in the Altay Mountains of Siberia, Russia. An ice-dam blocking a lake broke, allowing water to pour out. The lake was estimated to be 120 km (75 miles) long and 760 m (2,500ft) deep.
Deepest Lake
The world's deepest lake is Lake Baikal, in Siberia, Russia. The deepest point of the lake, the Olkhon Crevice, has a depth of 1,637 m (5,371 ft), of which 1,181 m (3,875 ft) are below sea level. It is also the oldest freshwater lake on Earth, having formed between 20 and 25 million years ago. Baikal also contains one-fifth of all the world’s fresh surface water! The lake is roughly crescent-shaped, 636 km (395 miles) long, with a surface area of 31,500 km² (12,200 miles²).
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