Titanosaur overview by Photo: AMNH/D. FinninAmerican Museum of Natural History
It's always a boon for a museum's collection to include a record-breaking exhibit. Want to see the world's biggest dinosaur skeleton? Or a massive (but miniature) railway? Scroll on and use the arrows to explore.
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1. Berlin Natural History Musuem
152 million years after it last walked the Earth, the Giraffatitan, the world's largest mounted dinosaur skeleton, found a new home at the Berlin Natural History Museum. When living, the long-tailed, long-necked herbivore probably weighed 50 tonnes and stood 13.3 metres tall.
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2. The American Museum of Natural History
Another dinosaur? This is the Titanosaur, or Patagotitan mayorum, one of the largest by weight. In fact, it's so large that when the American Museum of Natural History acquired the skeleton, they found none of their rooms were large enough! Step inside and walk its whole length.
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The museum also holds a model of the largest animal to have ever existed, the blue whale. This gentle giant has been swimming above the heads of visitors since the 1960s. At nearly ten tonnes and 30 metres long, it's a colossal creature!
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3. Miniatur Wunderland
What if you made a large thing small, and a small thing large? This was the dream of brothers Frederik and Gerrit Braun, and their friend Stephan Hertz. Together, they created the world's largest miniature railway.
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It's hard to express how amazingly huge and complex this miniature railway system is. In fact, the entire model features 1,040 locomotives, 4,340 buildings, and 269,000 figurines. The building itself is 7,000 m², and they employ over 300 people just to keep it running.
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4. The Insect Museum of West China
Think of the biggest insect you've ever seen. Now imagine one over half a metre long! That's how big the largest stick insect ever recorded is, and it was bred at the Insect Museum of West China. It ended up winning the museum a Guinness World Record.
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5. The World's Largest Twine Ball
Last, but certainly not least, is the World's Largest Twine Ball. It turns out there are many claims to this title, but this 8 tonne ball found in Darwin, Minnesota, USA, must be the most impressive. After all, this was made by a single person, Francis A. Johnson.
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Johnson began rolling the twine in March 1950, and spent four hours every day, for 29 years, wrapping length after length. Its fame is such that the town of Darwin celebrates an annual 'Twine Ball Day' on the second Saturday of August.
