5 ms·

It's been a sad couple of years for people who grew up with Jurassic Park and now realize those scary beasts are just a bunch of mutant chickens.

candiodari 8y ago
Just wait until they realize that these were not warm blooded animals and thus the large ones, including T-Rex, would have moved slower than large African animals (probably a lot slower), the fastest of which are about half as fast as normal human running speeds. for the same reason, our stamina should also be vastly superior to dinosaurs. If we just simply keep walking after running away, dinosaurs will never catch up. Even the smaller ones would only be able to maintain their top speeds for very short durations. Double digit seconds at the very most, and one can be fairly sure not more than 20/30 kph. Humans, and in fact nearly every animal, should be able to easily outrun and outlast any dinosaur. Probably the same as crocodiles, where being a lot faster and having more stamina does little good once those jaws close, or if you can't tell where the animal is reliably (like underwater). So they should be a lot like crocodiles : a human can pester them (on land) and be nearly perfectly certain that (s)he's never going to get caught by the animal (which is practiced in North Australia to get the things out of your bedroom).
- Retric 8y ago
  Central bearded dragon's are ~1lb reptiles and can do 25MPH which is faster than most people. So, at least predator dinosaurs where likely faster than most people. We might do fine over long distances, but overall we are fairly slow. As to being warm blooded, that's less meaningful for very large creatures. Body feathers are also a sign something is trying to conserve body heat which is a sign it's warm blooded.
  - candiodari 8y ago
    Trained humans can maintain a speed of ~20kph for hours (as in plural). Peak speed for a few seconds (which is what would be required to escape these animals if reaction time is not the problem) is ~50 kph for humans (but only for 10 meters or so). Apples to apples, humans are far superior to these speeds. The best animals for these measurements do crush these figures (by a factor of ~3), but I would expect that the best dinosaurs wouldn't. > Very large animals are effectively warm blooded by default due to volume to surface ratios cooling is a much larger problem than staying warm. True, but being "very large" does not really help with either top speed or explosive power. The fastest animals are small (though not tiny, a decent-not-huge dog in size but much lighter) brittle little things. They chase, rapidly inflict a mortal wound, and run away, waiting until it is abandoned to eat. Fast animals, from cheetahs to rabbits are much lighter than their appearance would suggest. The animals with greatest endurance are larger, but humans are, perhaps surprisingly, pretty good at endurance. Clearly we, at one point, hunted like dogs do : not by outsprinting an animal in an intense fast chase, but by wearing it down for hours, slowly closing in for the kill. Most animals should not be able to escape humans using that strategy. Human hunters would make an animal sprint for it's life 10 times, letting it "escape" 9 times.
    - Retric 8y ago
      The drastic difference between 12mph and 25mph is where our problems would show up. Many predators can do 20+ mph for long enough to eat us. Polar Bear's top out at around 25MPH but they can sustain that long enough that the safe distance is around 1/2 mile. Brown Bear's are worse making running a bad idea. Endurance hunting is far more effective in very high temperatures so it's use as likely limited.
      - candiodari 8y ago
        Humans are group animals. Try and stalk an individual wolf in a pack as an individual (even with a rifle) and let me know how it goes. You'd be lucky to live and tell the tale. Humans are the same. Getting the better of an individual human ... so easy it's hardly worth mentioning. Same with the wolf. Doing the same in a group of 100 humans, even a single individual in that group ? You won't survive the attempt. In all animals strategies work together to establish a desired outcome. Human strength does not come from intelligence, intelligence is simply what allows us to coordinate in large groups. The actual strength comes from the large groups.
        MrDam 8y ago
        Reminded me of a video that depicts thousands of African tribesman and their dogs on a mass hunt. It's awful to watch but it gives you an idea of how our ancestors hunted thousands and tens of thousands of years ago. Again, it's heart wrenching to watch them take down elephants and the like, but if you're still interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipn5rSQ2PY4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipn5rSQ2PY4
    - zimpenfish 8y ago
      > Trained humans can maintain a speed of ~20kph for hours The very best humans can only manage ~20kph for 2.05 hours (WR: 42.2km in 2:02:57 giving 20.59kph). Beyond that, the 50km WR is down to 18.3kph; 100km WR is 16.1kph; etc.
      - babapapa 8y ago
- java-man 8y ago
  I recall reading a paper where they inferred the dinosaur body temperature from Ca isotope ratio in a tooth. Came closer to warm blooded than cold blooded. Interesting research too.
  - java-man 8y ago
    Here is the link: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/06/22/science.1206196?explicitversion=true http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/06/22/scien...
    - candiodari 8y ago
      Very interesting. This would only apply to the largest of dinosaurs though, wouldn't it ? The kind that's just not ever going to chase anything.
      - java-man 8y ago
        quite possibly, although the effect might still be there. extant bumblebees warm themselves up after crawling outside on the cold morning by buzzing their wings.
DiffEq 8y ago
Although true, it really is a matter of perspective. If you were June bug, or any bug, running into a chicken would be a frightful and terrifying prospect.
staplers 8y ago
The "six foot turkey" kid was right all along..
cvaidya1986 8y ago
Reversing back the clock on evolution feels counter productive.
- Nomentatus 8y ago
  As is getting dentures, but it's more fun turning back the clock that way than not getting dentures (if those teeth are gone.) I vote for fun and discovery. And corn on the cob.
  - cvaidya1986 8y ago
    Getting dentures is making progress since you are aiding existing organisms live longer to propagate their experiences to the younger generation accelerating evolution. Fun and discovery in the direction of evolution. As in let’s evolve to solving pain and suffering for all and enlighten ourselves and others to the highest extent possible.

candiodari 8y ago

Just wait until they realize that these were not warm blooded animals and thus the large ones, including T-Rex, would have moved slower than large African animals (probably a lot slower), the fastest of which are about half as fast as normal human running speeds. for the same reason, our stamina should also be vastly superior to dinosaurs. If we just simply keep walking after running away, dinosaurs will never catch up. Even the smaller ones would only be able to maintain their top speeds for very short durations. Double digit seconds at the very most, and one can be fairly sure not more than 20/30 kph. Humans, and in fact nearly every animal, should be able to easily outrun and outlast any dinosaur. Probably the same as crocodiles, where being a lot faster and having more stamina does little good once those jaws close, or if you can't tell where the animal is reliably (like underwater). So they should be a lot like crocodiles : a human can pester them (on land) and be nearly perfectly certain that (s)he's never going to get caught by the animal (which is practiced in North Australia to get the things out of your bedroom).

Retric 8y ago
Central bearded dragon's are ~1lb reptiles and can do 25MPH which is faster than most people. So, at least predator dinosaurs where likely faster than most people. We might do fine over long distances, but overall we are fairly slow. As to being warm blooded, that's less meaningful for very large creatures. Body feathers are also a sign something is trying to conserve body heat which is a sign it's warm blooded.
- candiodari 8y ago
  Trained humans can maintain a speed of ~20kph for hours (as in plural). Peak speed for a few seconds (which is what would be required to escape these animals if reaction time is not the problem) is ~50 kph for humans (but only for 10 meters or so). Apples to apples, humans are far superior to these speeds. The best animals for these measurements do crush these figures (by a factor of ~3), but I would expect that the best dinosaurs wouldn't. > Very large animals are effectively warm blooded by default due to volume to surface ratios cooling is a much larger problem than staying warm. True, but being "very large" does not really help with either top speed or explosive power. The fastest animals are small (though not tiny, a decent-not-huge dog in size but much lighter) brittle little things. They chase, rapidly inflict a mortal wound, and run away, waiting until it is abandoned to eat. Fast animals, from cheetahs to rabbits are much lighter than their appearance would suggest. The animals with greatest endurance are larger, but humans are, perhaps surprisingly, pretty good at endurance. Clearly we, at one point, hunted like dogs do : not by outsprinting an animal in an intense fast chase, but by wearing it down for hours, slowly closing in for the kill. Most animals should not be able to escape humans using that strategy. Human hunters would make an animal sprint for it's life 10 times, letting it "escape" 9 times.
  - Retric 8y ago
    The drastic difference between 12mph and 25mph is where our problems would show up. Many predators can do 20+ mph for long enough to eat us. Polar Bear's top out at around 25MPH but they can sustain that long enough that the safe distance is around 1/2 mile. Brown Bear's are worse making running a bad idea. Endurance hunting is far more effective in very high temperatures so it's use as likely limited.
    - candiodari 8y ago
      Humans are group animals. Try and stalk an individual wolf in a pack as an individual (even with a rifle) and let me know how it goes. You'd be lucky to live and tell the tale. Humans are the same. Getting the better of an individual human ... so easy it's hardly worth mentioning. Same with the wolf. Doing the same in a group of 100 humans, even a single individual in that group ? You won't survive the attempt. In all animals strategies work together to establish a desired outcome. Human strength does not come from intelligence, intelligence is simply what allows us to coordinate in large groups. The actual strength comes from the large groups.
      - MrDam 8y ago
        Reminded me of a video that depicts thousands of African tribesman and their dogs on a mass hunt. It's awful to watch but it gives you an idea of how our ancestors hunted thousands and tens of thousands of years ago. Again, it's heart wrenching to watch them take down elephants and the like, but if you're still interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipn5rSQ2PY4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipn5rSQ2PY4
  - zimpenfish 8y ago
    > Trained humans can maintain a speed of ~20kph for hours The very best humans can only manage ~20kph for 2.05 hours (WR: 42.2km in 2:02:57 giving 20.59kph). Beyond that, the 50km WR is down to 18.3kph; 100km WR is 16.1kph; etc.
    - babapapa 8y ago
java-man 8y ago
I recall reading a paper where they inferred the dinosaur body temperature from Ca isotope ratio in a tooth. Came closer to warm blooded than cold blooded. Interesting research too.
- java-man 8y ago
  Here is the link: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/06/22/science.1206196?explicitversion=true http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/06/22/scien...
  - candiodari 8y ago
    Very interesting. This would only apply to the largest of dinosaurs though, wouldn't it ? The kind that's just not ever going to chase anything.
    - java-man 8y ago
      quite possibly, although the effect might still be there. extant bumblebees warm themselves up after crawling outside on the cold morning by buzzing their wings.

DiffEq 8y ago

Although true, it really is a matter of perspective. If you were June bug, or any bug, running into a chicken would be a frightful and terrifying prospect.

staplers 8y ago

The "six foot turkey" kid was right all along..

cvaidya1986 8y ago

Reversing back the clock on evolution feels counter productive.

Nomentatus 8y ago
As is getting dentures, but it's more fun turning back the clock that way than not getting dentures (if those teeth are gone.) I vote for fun and discovery. And corn on the cob.
- cvaidya1986 8y ago
  Getting dentures is making progress since you are aiding existing organisms live longer to propagate their experiences to the younger generation accelerating evolution. Fun and discovery in the direction of evolution. As in let’s evolve to solving pain and suffering for all and enlighten ourselves and others to the highest extent possible.