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You are right that they had pneumatic bones and air sacs and they were not as heavy as mammals with the same volume would have been. Nonetheless, the biggest d
by adrian_b 2mo ago
You are right that they had pneumatic bones and air sacs and they were not as heavy as mammals with the same volume would have been.
Nonetheless, the biggest dinosaurs were several times heavier than the heaviest terrestrial mammals that have ever lived, which in turn were several times heavier than the biggest elephants of today.
So probably dinosaurs were close to the size limit that is imposed by the mechanical properties of vertebrate tissues like bones, tendons and muscles, while in the present terrestrial mammals the size is limited by the availability of food and by the humans who have always hunted preferentially the biggest animals they encountered, and not by the strength of their bones.
- stevenwoo 2mo agoFor those interested, I think many of these issues are discussed (but not in the particular way we are) in the trilogy of books starting with the Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs, continuing with The Story of Birds and the Rise and Reign of Mammals.