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It could step over an elephant: https://paleontology.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/David-Attenborough-and-the-Giant-Dinosaur.jpg https://paleontology.us/wp-con

It could step over an elephant: https://paleontology.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/David-Attenborough-and-the-Giant-Dinosaur.jpg https://paleontology.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/David-Att... from: https://paleontology.us/titanosaurus/ https://paleontology.us/titanosaurus/

taneq 6y ago
Even on dry land? I thought we were leaning towards most of these giant sauropods being waders?
- azernik 6y ago
  That view was mostly abandoned in the 70s-90s. They were just built very lightly, using a lot of the same weight-saving techniques (hollow, airy bones) used by modern birds. (This lightness makes it unlikely they could function well in water; their torsos would float before getting very well immersed, which would indeed take weight off, but would also mean they'd have to hop along awkwardly on their front feet. This is supported by front-feet-only sauropod prints on once-submerged areas.)
  - taneq 6y ago
    > That view was mostly abandoned in the 70s-90s. Come to think of it, most of my books about dinosaurs are probably from the 80s... :P So the largest dinosaur bones were built more like trusses? That would make sense, I guess.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - azernik 6y ago
      Side note: I'm very interested to know if those weight-saving measures came from a common ancestor between sauropods and birds, or if that's just convergent evolution in two branches of the dinosaur family that were solving similar engineering problems.
roenxi 6y ago
Interestingly in the 2nd link that they have this creature towering over the local flora. The long neck makes more sense if there are trees that size and the neck is to get to the leaves. Otherwise what use is it?
- ceejayoz 6y ago
  It's just a render. The other graphic shows it reaching a height of 45 feet off the ground; modern trees far exceed that frequently.
- smabie 6y ago
  giraffes have super long necks and yet they bend over to eat. The answer is runaway sexual selection (or at least that's the answer wrt to giraffes).
  - sib 6y ago
    Giraffes also reach up to eat. (They do look quite funny when bending down to drink, though!)
    - smabie 6y ago
      I used to live in Tanzania and over there, the trees are mostly shorter than the giraffes, but I'm sure they reach up to eat sometimes. I guess my point was that giraffes didn't evolve long necks to eat.
      - mavhc 6y ago
        They have long legs to eat, and a long neck so they can still drink while having long legs
  - cromulent 6y ago
    This centuries-old question is still not settled, right? http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160629-giraffes-did-not-evolve-long-necks-to-reach-tall-trees http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160629-giraffes-did-not-evo...
Someone 6y ago
Unlikely, I would think. An elephant could walk under it, but “stepping over” IMO would require it to be able to lift both its front and back feet by the height of an elephant (and make steps the width of an elephant, but that, I think is feasible). How high a hurdle can an elephant clear? I know they can put their front feet on a pedestal that’s, ballpark, ½m, but I don’t see them step over one.
oblio 6y ago
The weight estimate on that website has to be way off. A male elephant can weigh up to 7 tons and they say that Titanosaurus would have weighed around 13 tons. Even with much lighter bones & co., at that size there's no way it would have weighed that little. A mammoth could weigh up to 12 tons, as another point of comparison. A dinosaur like the one they depict would have weighed at least 50 tons, IMO.
me_me_me 6y ago
What was it eating? Whole tree canopies? Those animals must needed amazing amount of land to sustain, even though cold blooded.
Tade0 6y ago
I'm familiar with many non-standard measurements, but neither Google nor my dictionary is able to tell me what's a "skipful". Anyone would like to give me the definition in SI?
- unwind 6y ago
  "Skip" is British English for "container" [1]. Of course they come in various sizes, so it means anything from 1.5 m³ to just over 6 m³. A very rough measure, in other words, which makes sense in context. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skip_(container) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skip_(container)
  - shatnersbassoon 6y ago
    "Skip" is actually British English for "dumpster"
    - unwind 6y ago
      D'oh! Killed by a false friend [1]! Thanks. ("Container" is both "container" and "dumpster" in Swedish, and it's pronounced pretty much as "container" in English since it's a loan word, but the meanings have diverged, I guess.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend

taneq 6y ago

Even on dry land? I thought we were leaning towards most of these giant sauropods being waders?

azernik 6y ago
That view was mostly abandoned in the 70s-90s. They were just built very lightly, using a lot of the same weight-saving techniques (hollow, airy bones) used by modern birds. (This lightness makes it unlikely they could function well in water; their torsos would float before getting very well immersed, which would indeed take weight off, but would also mean they'd have to hop along awkwardly on their front feet. This is supported by front-feet-only sauropod prints on once-submerged areas.)
- taneq 6y ago
  > That view was mostly abandoned in the 70s-90s. Come to think of it, most of my books about dinosaurs are probably from the 80s... :P So the largest dinosaur bones were built more like trusses? That would make sense, I guess.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - azernik 6y ago
    Side note: I'm very interested to know if those weight-saving measures came from a common ancestor between sauropods and birds, or if that's just convergent evolution in two branches of the dinosaur family that were solving similar engineering problems.

roenxi 6y ago

Interestingly in the 2nd link that they have this creature towering over the local flora. The long neck makes more sense if there are trees that size and the neck is to get to the leaves. Otherwise what use is it?

ceejayoz 6y ago
It's just a render. The other graphic shows it reaching a height of 45 feet off the ground; modern trees far exceed that frequently.
smabie 6y ago
giraffes have super long necks and yet they bend over to eat. The answer is runaway sexual selection (or at least that's the answer wrt to giraffes).
- sib 6y ago
  Giraffes also reach up to eat. (They do look quite funny when bending down to drink, though!)
  - smabie 6y ago
    I used to live in Tanzania and over there, the trees are mostly shorter than the giraffes, but I'm sure they reach up to eat sometimes. I guess my point was that giraffes didn't evolve long necks to eat.
    - mavhc 6y ago
      They have long legs to eat, and a long neck so they can still drink while having long legs
- cromulent 6y ago
  This centuries-old question is still not settled, right? http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160629-giraffes-did-not-evolve-long-necks-to-reach-tall-trees http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160629-giraffes-did-not-evo...

Someone 6y ago

Unlikely, I would think. An elephant could walk under it, but “stepping over” IMO would require it to be able to lift both its front and back feet by the height of an elephant (and make steps the width of an elephant, but that, I think is feasible). How high a hurdle can an elephant clear? I know they can put their front feet on a pedestal that’s, ballpark, ½m, but I don’t see them step over one.

oblio 6y ago

The weight estimate on that website has to be way off. A male elephant can weigh up to 7 tons and they say that Titanosaurus would have weighed around 13 tons. Even with much lighter bones & co., at that size there's no way it would have weighed that little. A mammoth could weigh up to 12 tons, as another point of comparison. A dinosaur like the one they depict would have weighed at least 50 tons, IMO.

me_me_me 6y ago

What was it eating? Whole tree canopies? Those animals must needed amazing amount of land to sustain, even though cold blooded.

Tade0 6y ago

I'm familiar with many non-standard measurements, but neither Google nor my dictionary is able to tell me what's a "skipful". Anyone would like to give me the definition in SI?

unwind 6y ago
"Skip" is British English for "container" [1]. Of course they come in various sizes, so it means anything from 1.5 m³ to just over 6 m³. A very rough measure, in other words, which makes sense in context. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skip_(container) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skip_(container)
- shatnersbassoon 6y ago
  "Skip" is actually British English for "dumpster"
  - unwind 6y ago
    D'oh! Killed by a false friend [1]! Thanks. ("Container" is both "container" and "dumpster" in Swedish, and it's pronounced pretty much as "container" in English since it's a loan word, but the meanings have diverged, I guess.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend