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> "The sheer size of this animal is absolutely mind-boggling, this is one of the biggest animals from the Cambrian period ever found" ... > With an estimated
by davidw 5y ago
> "The sheer size of this animal is absolutely mind-boggling, this is one of the biggest animals from the Cambrian period ever found"
...
> With an estimated total length of half a meter
I suppose for specialists who understand what was floating around back then it's impressive, but that seemed a bit underwhelming to me.
- nighthawk454 5y agoIt's all relative I suppose, no? They were fairly clear on the scale right in the section you quoted, right at the top: > With an estimated total length of half a meter, Titanokorys was a giant compared to most animals that lived in the seas at that time, most of which barely reached the size of a pinky finger.
- NelsonMinar 5y agoyou left out the part of the quote that gives it context. "compared to most animals that lived in the seas at that time, most of which barely reached the size of a pinky finger."
- davidw 5y agoYes, but with the headline and the guy talking 'massive'... they could have included a 'relative to' or something? I was expecting some kind of deep sea leviathan.
- isk517 5y ago'Dog-sized animal species discovered...' gets a lot less clicks.
- Fricken 5y agoThe relation was made in the headline. It stands to reason that a massive half billion year old animal would be massive relative to other animals from a half billion years ago.
- Dylan16807 5y agoDoes the average person have a good sense of how big animals were 500 million years ago vs. 250-300 million years ago? The latter of which was quite big, and any 'massive' from there on would be fitting by modern standards.
- stan_rogers 5y agoThe average interested person would have, yes. That would include anybody who's watched any of the relevant PBS Nova programming, or any of David Attenborough's work, etc. - you don't need to have kept your head in the journals to be informed at that level.
- TheOtherHobbes 5y agoYes, it's a click bait title. Yes, it's still fascinating and mind boggling if you know a little of the background.
- davidw 5y agoI didn't say it wasn't interesting. But it would have probably been even more interesting without building it up as 'massive creature' that's actually the size of my cat.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- exporectomy 5y agoIf, instead of calling it half a meter, they had called it "10 times the length of other animals of its time", maybe you would still be impressed.