3 ms·
A heavyweight early whale pushes the boundaries of vertebrate morphology
- Qem 3y agoThat makes one wonder, if maximum aquatic mammalian body sizes matched and surpassed dinosaurs', why didn't the same happen on land? Elephants and even the extinct mammoths are no match to the largest terrestrial dinosaurs.
- JoeAltmaier 3y agoHas to be environmental? CO2 vs O2 concentration; humidity and heat; calorie density in ground vegetation. All are different, and may have contributed to limits on maximum grazer size. Witness the brontosaurs. Long neck so they could remain relatively motionless and strip their surroundings of nutrients without expending many calories. Such an environment today where everything in a 20 or 30 foot radius is edible may be rarer.