WORLD RECORDS

The lankiest canine in recorded history was Zeus, a great dane that measured 1.12 metres (44in) tall until his death last year. The lofty mutt was owned by the Doorlag family from Michigan and his record-breaking career began when Kevin Doorlag was watching TV: “We saw [previous title-holder] Giant George on Oprah Winfrey and I was like, ‘Man, Zeus has got to be right up there.’ We tried to measure him but he’s such a baby, he was scared of the tape measure.” Zeus was indeed a gentle giant and a part-time pet therapy dog. When he stood on his hind legs, he was 2.2m (7ft 4in) tall, more than a third of the height of an average giraffe.

The largest pizza has a total surface area of 1,261.65 m² (13,580.28 ft²) and was prepared by Dovilio Nardi, Andrea Mannocchi, Marco Nardi, Matteo Nardi and Matteo Giannotte (all Italy) from NIP food at Fiera Roma, in Rome, Italy, on 13 December 2012.The pizza was named "Ottavia", a word of Roman origin for "eighth son", as a homage to the first Roman emperor Octavian Augustus, who represented an epoch-making change in the history of Rome and brought the Empire into a period of economic and cultural unrest.

The heaviest apple weighed 1.849 kilograms (4 pounds, 1 ounce). It was grown by Chisato Iwasaki at his apple farm in Hirosaki City, Japan, and was picked Oct. 24, 2005.