Robert Wadlow

Today I found out who has had the largest human body parts. (the G rated version)

Have you ever been walking down the road and you see the human Dumbo, mixed with a Pinocchio, and wondered who might have the biggest nose/hair/ears/hands/etc.? Well wonder no more!

The tallest living person is Sultan Kosen from Ankara, Turkey. Born in December of 1982, he stands at 8′ 3″ tall! Mr. Kosen also holds the record for the widest hand span at 12 inches. The tallest man in history was Robert Pershing Wadlow, who was 8 feet 11.1 inches (2.72 m) tall and 485 pounds at the time of his death.  By the age of 4 years old, he was already 5 ft 4 inches tall (1.63m).  At the age of 13, he became the tallest Boy Scout in history at 7 ft 4 inches (2.24m). Wadlow had not yet stopped growing at the time of his death at the age of 22.  He died in 1940 of an infection caused from blisters on his ankle that he didn’t notice at first due to not being able to feel much of anything in his feet and lower legs.  Like his living counter-part, Robert holds another record. His feet were the largest in history at US Size 37AA. That would be 18 ½ inches long. Since we are on the subject of tall people, the tallest living person under the age of 18 is Brenden Adams. Born on September 20^th, 1995 he is 7′ 4.6” tall.

The longest toe does not live on the biggest foot. Instead, it belonged to Mathew McGory. Mr. McGory died in 2005, but not before gaining his title. He had a big toe that was 5 inches long. His little toe was 1.5 inches.

Hoping to never be in the same room as Mathew when he takes off his shoe is Mehmet Ozyurek from Artuin, Turkey. He has the longest nose ever at 3.46 inches from the bridge to the tip.

When it comes to funky feet (and hands), there are those born with Polydactylism (people born with extra fingers and toes). The person born with the most fingers and toes was Akshat Saxena of India. He was born with 14 fingers, 7 on each hand, and 20 toes, 10 on each foot.

The longest tongue belongs to Stephen Taylor from the United Kingdom. From the middle of his closed lip to the tip, his ice-cream licker is 3.86 inches long. Just because I know several fellas out there are wondering, the longest female tongue belongs to Chanel Tapper of California. Hers measures a close second at 3.8 inches. Putting this size in to perspective, this tongue is about the same length as an iPhone. The widest tongue is almost as wide as the longest is long. It belongs to Jay Sloot of San Remo, Australia and is 3.1 inches wide.   One would guess these individuals could probably break the “fewest number of licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop” record too, if they set their mind to it.

The widest mouth does not belong to any of our large tongued brethren. This big mouth belongs to Fransisco Domingos of Angola. At 6.69 inches, he can fit a regular sized subway sandwich in his mouth… sideways! You might think the biggest mouth would have the most teeth. Well he doesn’t. The record for the most teeth in a human mouth belongs to two people. As of October 17^th 2008, both Kanchan Rojawat of India and Luca Meriano of Italy have 35 adult teeth.

The longest legs belong to a woman. Svetlana Pankratova has 51.9 inch legs! Presumably she would have had a lucrative career ahead of her appearing in lady shaver advertisements had not basketball gotten in the way.  She played ball at Virginia Commonwealth University setting school records in most career blocked shots (176) and the most blocked shots in a single season (75).  Along with naturally being good at getting in people’s way of shooting, due to her height advantage, she also was a great shot, coming in at eight best in school history with 178 field goals in one season.

The longest ear hair, yes ear hair, sprouts from the ears of Anthony Victor of India. Starting at the middle of the pinna, they hang an amazing 7.12 inches long. The longest natural hair, from the head this time, grows atop the melon of Xie Qiuping of China. She began growing her lovely locks in 1973 at the age of 13. As of May 2004, her hair measured an astounding 18 feet 5.54 inches (eat your heart out Rapunzel).

Hans Langseth of Norway died in 1927, but not before setting the record for the longest beard ever recorded.  His facial hair would have made Dumbledore jealous, measuring 18 feet 6 inches long, which outstrips Xie Qiuping’s head hair by about a half an inch!

Supatra Sasuphan

On the subject of hair, the hairiest teenager on record is Supatra Sasuphan of Bankok Thailand. Using the Ferriman Gallwey method of evaluation, she was given her title in 2010. This method assesses hair growth in 19 body areas, giving each area a score of between 0 and 4. Looking like a future candidate for a Teen Wolf movie reboot, Supatra has a surprisingly optimistic view of things. When she was crowned she stated “Being hairy makes me special, this is the happiest day of my life.”

Annie Hawkins-Turner, also known as Norma Stitz, has arguably one of the most intriguing titles known to teenage boys everywhere. She has the largest natural breasts of any human being. Her “under the breast measurement” is 43 inches, but her over the nipple measurement is a world-baby-hunger-ending 70 inches! That means they are sticking out 2 feet 3 inches! To put that in to perspective, the smallest adult human in history was Gul Mohammed who stood at 22.5 inches tall. Just so we are clear, her breasts are bigger than his entire body! Sadly he died in 1997, so we will never see the two side by side. That would have been a circus attraction for sure!

The longest fingernails belonging to a man, grown on the paws of Melvin Boothe. They had a combined length of 32′ 3.8” . Melvin, however, sadly passed away in December of 2009. The longest fingernails on a woman belonged to Lee Redmond. Beginning their growth in 1979, they reached a finger-licking 28′ 4.5” before they were unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) destroyed in a car accident in 2009.

The longest neck ever recorded was 15.75 inches. It was artificially stretched using a technique practiced by the women of the padaung and Kareni tribes of Myanmnar. They stretch their necks using successive copper coils wrapped between their heads and their shoulders. Some get so long that they cannot hold their heads up. Because of this, the coils may be removed as a punishment for those who have committed adultery.

Bonus Facts:

• Leaving the realm of humans, the largest among the animal kingdom include:
  • The Blue Whale is the largest living animal.  They can grow to over 100 feet long and weigh over 180 tons.  Their tongues alone can weighs nearly 3 tons.
  • The Atlantic Giant Squid has the largest eyes at nearly 20 inches in diameter.
  • The longest neck goes to the giraffe.  Their necks can grow to as much as 7 feet long with the neck weighing over 600 pounds.
  • The longest worm, which may also be the longest living thing on Earth, is the Bootlace worm.  The exact length these worms can grow is hard to determine as they are very elastic, but the largest of these are thought to be between 150-200 feet long.
• There have been only 10 confirmed cases of a human standing over 8 feet tall.
• The Guinness book of world records was the brain child of Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of the Guinness Brewery. In 1951, Mr. Beaver returned from a hunting trip in which he argued with friends over the fastest bird in Europe. He wasn’t able to find a reference guide for the answer, so he hired Norris and Ross McWhirter. These London fact- finding brothers created the first edition in 1954 and gave the book to bars, nation wide, as a ploy to draw up publicity. The record book has been a hit ever since and has sold over 120 million copies in 37 different languages!
• In 2005, it was decided by Guinness that November 9^th was going to be the International Guinness World Records Day. This day would allow all of the aspiring world record holders to get together and compete for their respective titles!
• The record for most records held belongs to Ashrita Furman. He became the first man to simultaneously hold 100 Guinness World Records in 2009. He holds records for numerous things like; longest distance somersaulting, most hopscotch games completed in 24 hours, longest distance pogo-stick jumping, most underwater jump roping jumps in 1 hour, etc. etc. You can see some of his current records here: Ashrita Records
• The 19 locations assessed in the Ferriman-Gallwey method of quantifying Hirsutism (excessive hair growth in women) are; Upper lip, chin, chest, upper back, lower back, upper abdomen, lower abdomen, upper arms, thighs, sideburns, neck, buttocks, inguinal area, perianal area, forearm, leg, foot, toes and fingers.
• The longest bone in the human body is the Femur.
• The largest organ in the human body is the skin; the largest internal organ is the liver.