Lolong beats the previous record holder by more than two feet.
Lolong has triumphed: At 20.24 feet (6.17 meters) long, the saltwater crocodile is officially the largest in captivity, Guinness World Records recently announced.
The Guinness list is based on data from experts, including crocodile zoologist Adam Britton, who measured the east at its home, the new Bunawan Ecological Park and Research Centre. (Read more about Lolong’s Guinness World Records list.)
Initially wary of the record-size claims, Britton wrote on his blog his congratulations to Lolong “for surprising the skeptic in me.”
“I did not expect to see a crocodile over 20 feet long in my life, it is not an experience I will easily forget,” wrote Britton, a partner at Australia-based crocodile research and consultancy group Big Gecko. (See images of alligators and crocodiles).
The previous record holder in captivity was a 17.97-foot-long (5.48-meter-long) Australian saltwater crocodile.
Additionally, Britton noted, the 2,370-pound (1,075-kilogram) Lolong can have a considerable impact on crocodile conservation in the Philippines.
For example, the Philippine Senate recently introduced a resolution to reform laws protecting the saltwater crocodile and the Philippine crocodile, an issue considered critically reviewed by the International Organization for Conservation of Nature.
As Britton wrote on his blog, “this is excellent progress.”
And although tardigrades can hardly be called cute, they also took their corner in the Internet meme room. The reason, of course, lies in its original appearance, which is only visible under strong magnification. This creature looks like a symbiosis of Stich from the cartoon and a bag for collecting dust from a regular vacuum cleaner.
Tardigrades are sometimes jokingly called microscopic water bears. And having heard such a nickname, many think that this is a nice creature, although in reality they would cause shock with their appearance, if they were a little larger.
The appearance of tardigrades.
Imagine a 4-part body, up to one and a half millimeters in size, which is topped by an unusual head. On the sides of the tardigrades are four pairs of short legs with several claws, while one pair of legs unfolds against the movement of the creature. Thanks to this addition, they actually move very slowly, moving on average only 2-3 millimeters per minute. The mouth is a pair of sharp fangs with which tardigrades tear the shells of moss and algae cells that, in fact, they feed on.
