what are the 5 largest animals ever found

Direct answer: The largest animals ever found are the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) for living animals, and among dinosaurs the Argentinosaurus and Patagotitan are among the largest known individuals from the fossil record. The blue whale can exceed 30 meters (over 98 feet) in length and weigh up to around 180–200 tonnes, making it the biggest animal known to have ever lived. Among land animals, estimates for some titanosaurs like Argentinosaurus and Patagotitan suggest lengths over 30–40 meters and body masses in the tens of tonnes, with Patagotitan estimated around 60–70 tonnes and Argentinosaurus often cited in the 70–77 tonne range, though such paleontological size estimates carry substantial uncertainties due to fragmentary remains. For completeness, other extremely large prehistoric vertebrates include certain sauropods such as Brachiosaurus and Patagosaurus in earlier reconstructions, but the current consensus places the top contenders for mass and length in the group of giant titanosaurs from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. If you’d like, I can organize a concise side-by-side comparison of the top candidates (blue whale vs. the largest sauropods) with their estimated measurements and the confidence ranges, or pull the latest scholarly estimates and summarize them.