[limbero]

Nitpick maybe, but I don't think oocytes are the largest cells, it pretty much has to be some sort of neuron. A sensory neuron for eg. someplace in the foot will be almost as long as the person is tall, and even if the neuron is extremely thin, it's gotta beat the oocyte for volume.

[hatthew]

Some back of the envelope math says this is true. A conservative estimate for the size of an alpha motor neuron axon is 10μm diameter and 1m long, which already puts it over an order of magnitude larger than the 4,000,000µm³ oocyte quoted in the article.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

This almost feels like cheating. Why not count hair follicles with hair attached then?

[mbauman]

That's very different; hair doesn't perform membrane transport along its length. The surface of an axon is critical to the cell's functioning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axolemma

[hatthew]

In addition to what mbauman said, hair follicles and the hair itself are not single-cell. I can't immediately find the composition and average cell size, but even a long and thick strand of hair is less than 2 orders of magnitude larger than the largest neurons. I doubt any individual hair cell is very large.

[gus_massa]

I agree, except the Squid Gian Axon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squid_giant_axon that can "1mm diameter and almost 1m long" https://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/using-animals...

[CrazyStat]

Giraffes neurons can be up to 15 feet long. Blue whales are speculated to have neurons up to 100 feet long, though they've never been directly observed (dissected).

[IAmBroom]

They've been catastrophically dissected at least once, which we know due to the detailed field notes made by Paul Linnman, and subsequent citations by Dave Barry.

It's possible some of them were observed, given the likelihood of striking someone's glasses or windshield.

[Kaliboy]

But neurons are electrical no? I suppose maybe that's why they're not in the comparison.

Or does that work with diffusion too?