4 ms·
They may have been able to fly because, perhaps, the air pressure was different back then. 2 bar or more http://levenspiel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Dino
by Rhinobird 8y ago
They may have been able to fly because, perhaps, the air pressure was different back then. 2 bar or more
http://levenspiel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DinosaurW.pdf http://levenspiel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DinosaurW.p...
Going back even further, there's giant insects. Bugs today are limited in size to the efficiency of their respiratory system. They don't have lungs like vertebrates. Air just sorta diffuses through their bodies. I you raise insects in a high oxygen environment, after a few generations they get bigger. The size of bugs before the dinosaurs indicate a higher oxygen content.
https://www.livescience.com/1083-oxygen-giant-bugs.html https://www.livescience.com/1083-oxygen-giant-bugs.html
- curtis 8y agoI'm under the impression that a higher prehistorical concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere is widely accepted at this point. Higher atmospheric pressure is not something I've heard anything about though. Wikipedia has a nice graph showing high and low estimates for the historical oxygen level: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_history_of_oxygen#/media/File:Oxygenation-atm-2.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_history_of_oxygen#/....
- marcosdumay 8y agoI don't think anybody is claiming that Earth gained extra nitrogen (how would it?). So, while it lost oxygen, it also had to lose some air pressure. I imagine there was some huge pressure loss at the oxygen catastrophe.
- int_19h 8y agoYou also need to account for CO2.
- marcosdumay 8y agoThere is almost no CO2 on the atmosphere.
- Rhinobird 8y agoMy thought would be, when the asteroid hit, it blew away a large chunk of atmosphere with it.