Earth Day 2019: Google Doodle celebrates our planet's uniqueness

Google is celebrating Earth Day 2019 with an interactive doodle that explores six organisms and their earthly superlative. The Google Doodle dedicated to Earth Day 2019 celebrates the beauty in diversity and uniqueness of our Earth. The Earth Day 2019 Google Doodle aims to show everyone the characteristics that make our planet a wonderful place to live.

The doodle features six organisms which have unique qualities or earthly superlatives, such as being the tallest, smallest, oldest, and so on. "The last thing I wanted to do was feature animals based on their cuteness or how they might appeal in some way to my mammalian sensibilities. We tried to focus on having a good range of organisms from around the globe," says Google's Earth Day 2019 doodle creator Kevin Laughlin.

When the Doodle first opens, the first creature you will see is a wandering albatross, which has the widest wingspan of any living bird. Next, the Doodle shows the coastal redwood, also known as the tallest tree on Earth. The Doodle also flips through the Paedophryne Amauensis, which holds the world record for the world’s smallest frog and smallest vertebrate, and the Amazon water lily, one of the planet’s largest aquatic plants. Closing out the Doodle is the coelacanth, a 407 million-year-old water creature that’s one of the world’s oldest living species and the deep cave springtail, one of the deepest-dwelling terrestrial creatures.

"All life is incredible and worth celebrating. If I can inspire the smallest bit of curiosity or wonder in someone, that would make me very happy," Laughlin said.