The Biggest Ass Fish to Ever Swim Earth's Oceans

Currently...right now...as I type this, the largest fish swimming around in the deep dark ocean is the freaking adorable whale shark (with its cute, big adorable mouth).



The largest confirmed specimen was 41.5 feet long. That's big! Like, three times bigger than a great white big!!! But, it's not big enough to usurp the Leedsichthys problematicus, the largest known fish ever.



For more than a 160 million years ago, the Leedsichthys problematicus reigned supreme in Jurassic waters.



And it took up a lot of space. It can grow to over 54 feet in length. A 54 foot fish!!!!

Up until now, researchers were only able to speculate on the fishy link due to incomplete fossils; but the recent discovery of the almost completely intact remains, confirmed the aquatic conjectures. And, like many scientific discoveries, this knowledge comes to light after a super scientific, well thought out accident.

Professor Liston of the National Museums of Scotland (and part of the discovery team), said that two students were working on a geology project, in a quarry, when they noticed pieces of bone sticking out of the rocks. It turned out to be fossil pieces of Leedsichthys. A real breakthrough. The students made their discovery at Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. The discovery shows that while dinosaurs were experiencing gigantism, or excessive growth, on land, sea breeders were undergoing similar changes.

So, on land, it was all raging and chomping, and under the sea, this guy (Leedsichthys) would sweep up shoals of plankton in its mouth, trapping them in a mesh net on its gills. Until they were wiped out by the same thing that wiped out the dinos.