4 ms·

Can't believe the downvoting. There's several major issues with the current dinosaur theory RN. Four areas of scientific incongruities regarding these animals’

Can't believe the downvoting. There's several major issues with the current dinosaur theory RN. Four areas of scientific incongruities regarding these animals’ large size are 1) insufficient muscle strength, 2) insufficient bone strength, 3) unacceptably high blood pressure within the tallest dinosaurs, and 4) the paradox of pterosaurs having grossly insufficient power to fly in atmospheric conditions similar to the present Today there are no reptiles capable of generating the power needed to fly, and yet during the Mesozoic era reptiles grew to be the largest flying animals that ever existed. The largest of these pterosaurs was the Quetzalcoatlus. It had a chest size as large as a horse and stood as tall as a giraffe ... [Y]et some paleontologists continue to insist that there is no scientific paradox regarding how the pterosaurs could have flown ... [P]terosaurs could not have flown in today’s atmospheric environment. The application of aerodynamic equations show pterosaurs falling far short of meeting the requirements for obtaining flight in today’s atmosphere, and the experimental efforts using RC models provide physical evidence confirming these conclusions. It should be alarming to all scientists and science educators that some paleontologists continue to claim that they understand how pterosaurs flew when the evidence is so overwhelming in refuting their claim ...

marcosdumay 5y ago
Most of those incongruities were solved as soon as people stopped trying to model dinosaurs after lizards. The pterosaurs one was solved when they stopped modeling them after birds. I'm not sure the blood pressure one was solved, but given we have current animals with features that could solve their problem, it's not too much to expect that it's not a fundamental problem and we will find how it was solved when we get a detailed enough picture of their necks.
onychomys 5y ago
This is HN, please cite your sources. For example, the sentence starting "Today there are no reptiles..." comes from this website [0], which is run by somebody who freely admits that he's not a paleontologist and who sure seems to have some fairly...unusual views on biology. [0] https://dinosaurtheory.com/flight.html https://dinosaurtheory.com/flight.html
swagasaurus-rex 5y ago
People forget there were mammals compare to or were bigger elephants in our recent past. The giant ground sloth - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatherium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatherium Mastodons - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon Wandering Albatross - https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/antarctica-yields-fossils-of-giant-birds-with-21-foot-wingspans/article61713262.ece https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/ant... Giant armadillos - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyptodon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyptodon They aren't around because humans hunted them out. Except the albatross, those died out long ago.
- lapetitejort 5y ago
  Similarly, people may not realize that the largest animal to have ever lived is alive right now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_whale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_whale
- Flatcircle 5y ago
  The examples you listed, the giant Sloth, the Mastodon, and the giant Armadillo are all actually smaller than a modern elephant so you're not really making your point with those links. The giant sauropods are thought to have been 10 times heavier than an Elephant. Ten times heavier! That's enormous. And the wandering albatross you linked to is said to have existed 50 million years ago in the article.
ComputerGuru 5y ago
Wikipedia has entire section on Quetzalcoatlus and hypotheses around if and hoe it could fly. The consensus seems to be that it’s possible (with no mention of a denser atmosphere as a precondition or even a factor) just depending on how the musculature is modeled around its skeleton. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatlus#Flight https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatlus#Flight

marcosdumay 5y ago

Most of those incongruities were solved as soon as people stopped trying to model dinosaurs after lizards. The pterosaurs one was solved when they stopped modeling them after birds. I'm not sure the blood pressure one was solved, but given we have current animals with features that could solve their problem, it's not too much to expect that it's not a fundamental problem and we will find how it was solved when we get a detailed enough picture of their necks.

onychomys 5y ago

This is HN, please cite your sources. For example, the sentence starting "Today there are no reptiles..." comes from this website [0], which is run by somebody who freely admits that he's not a paleontologist and who sure seems to have some fairly...unusual views on biology. [0] https://dinosaurtheory.com/flight.html https://dinosaurtheory.com/flight.html

swagasaurus-rex 5y ago

People forget there were mammals compare to or were bigger elephants in our recent past. The giant ground sloth - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatherium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatherium Mastodons - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon Wandering Albatross - https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/antarctica-yields-fossils-of-giant-birds-with-21-foot-wingspans/article61713262.ece https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/ant... Giant armadillos - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyptodon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyptodon They aren't around because humans hunted them out. Except the albatross, those died out long ago.

lapetitejort 5y ago
Similarly, people may not realize that the largest animal to have ever lived is alive right now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_whale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_whale
Flatcircle 5y ago
The examples you listed, the giant Sloth, the Mastodon, and the giant Armadillo are all actually smaller than a modern elephant so you're not really making your point with those links. The giant sauropods are thought to have been 10 times heavier than an Elephant. Ten times heavier! That's enormous. And the wandering albatross you linked to is said to have existed 50 million years ago in the article.

ComputerGuru 5y ago

Wikipedia has entire section on Quetzalcoatlus and hypotheses around if and hoe it could fly. The consensus seems to be that it’s possible (with no mention of a denser atmosphere as a precondition or even a factor) just depending on how the musculature is modeled around its skeleton. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatlus#Flight https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatlus#Flight