Inspired by this thread: which animals, if any, definitely have a throat large enough to swallow a human whole? I wouldn’t think there’d be too awfully many left…
A blue whale could probably do it, but they’re not predators. I don’t think a killer whale would be big enough, he’d probably have to bite the human into a few pieces before eating him.
As I recall a human could not be swallowed by a blue whale.
Isn’t it the blue whale that has the boney sieve-like structure in its throat for extracting the tiny shimp it eats?
Boa constrictors and Pythons have, as I remember, been documented eating humans whole. I’ll try to dig up a cite.
Baleeen is what a blue whale has insetad of teeth. It allows them to open thier mouth, take a mouthfull of seatawater then eject the water through the baleen plates while straining the krill so it can swallow them. I don’t know if one can swallow a human but baleen doesn’t work the way you describe.
A blue whale has baleen in it’s mouth, for extracting krill from seawater.
It couldn’t possibly swallow a human being whole, its throat is much too small to do so…
A sperm whale might be able to do it:
I’d read the statement “only gullet large enough” as “only cetacean gullet large enough”, I don’t think the author was trying to extend the claim beyond cetaceans.
If you find one, come over to the other thread and tell us.
I’ve seen rather distrubing pictures of a child (maybe 14ish?) being found inside a large python. It does happen but I don’t know if a full grown adult could be swallowed.
Grouper swallow their prey whole. Some species grow large enough (8 feet long, 800 lbs.) to swallow a small human. According to this site, some have tried. (Probably just a fish story.)
What qualifies as “a whole human”? I bet an alligator could swallow a ten-pound baby whole…
I believe I saw something at the Texas Aquarium about this. The information placard said that SCUBA divers have reported being swallowed by groupers, though only up to their waists, before being spit back out again.
I think only a sperm whale could handle a large human body (don’t they swallow giant squids?). A very large great white shark or saltwater crocodile might be able to swallow a small child whole, but I think an adult would take at least two gulps. I don’t think even a tyrannosaur could have taken a whole adult; or am I wrong about this?
There is a creature called Parisas Hiltonus that has been reputed to swallow men whole.
There’s S. Silverstein’s famous 1974 monograph on the subject, still considered the definitive treatment in many circles.
Other specimens with this capability include the Tarrasque, the purple wurm, and all Huge or larger dragons.
Sperm Whales certainly have the capability of swallowing an adult human whole, since squids weighing more than 400 pounds have been found intact in their stomachs. However, a well-known case of a supposed modern-day Jonah has been debunked by Cecil: Have any real-life Jonahs been swallowed by whales and lived?, a column that I helped to research.
The larger baleen whales, including the Blue Whale, mostly eat small organisms and have much narrower throats. Once reference says they can’t swallow anything much larger than an orange. This would also go for the largest fish, the Whale Shark.
As I posted in the other thread:
This was a Reticulated Python. I don’t think Boa constrictors get large enough to have this capability, but Anacondas do.
This sounds as if it might be the photo debunked by Snopes that is mentioned in the other thread.
According to Google and other sources, a Blue Whale’s throat is about 9.1 in in diameter in a relaxed state in which the whale is not eating. It is speculated but unknown of the diameter of a Blue Whale’s throat whilst swallowing. The most accepted length is 24 - 26 in. Knowing that, a skinny person who is not seen by the whale (they are gentle) could indeed be swallowed, as they do not have a gag reflex and cannot effectively spew a mass such as a human out of its mouth while in the process of swallowing. This, however has not been documented, and I am told it is best to advise readers not to attempt being ingested by any living thing.
According to Google and other sources, a Blue Whale’s throat is about 9.1 in in diameter in a relaxed state in which the whale is not eating. It is speculated but unknown of the diameter of a Blue Whale’s throat whilst swallowing. The most accepted length is 24 - 26 in. Knowing that, a skinny person who is not seen by the whale (they are gentle) could indeed be swallowed, as they do not have a gag reflex and cannot effectively spew it out of its mouth while in the process of swallowing. This, however has not been documented, and I am told it is best to advise readers not to attempt being ingested by any living thing.
I’d like to know the source of this claim. How on earth would one get access to a living specimen and coax it into testing for a gag reflex? Do they even manufacture tongue depressors large enough for such a test? 
How about zombie whales?