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They also mention that it would have had to spend almost the entirety of it's life eating, rarely even sleeping, and that simply falling over could have greatly
by Crito 12y ago
They also mention that it would have had to spend almost the entirety of it's life eating, rarely even sleeping, and that simply falling over could have greatly harmed it.
Maybe this was some other sort of generally less unwieldy dinosaur, except this particular specimen had some sort of gigantism disorder. Might explain why it appears the bones were continuing to grow even at that massive size, and why it became stuck.
- bduerst 12y agoSounds a little like the modern day hummingbird, which is continuously hours away from starvation. Maybe this species continuously grows, and that conditions were just right for this one specimen to keep going past the mean age.
- Double_Cast 12y ago> Maybe this species continuously grows Sounds a little like Bean, from the Ender's Shadow series. A mutation caused him to grow indefinitely. The researchers may have missed a nominative opportunity here.
- maaku 12y agoThat's not an uncommon condition. It's happened in humans before, for example.
- FigBug 12y agoI don't think this is actually true, as they can fly across the gulf of Mexico (500 miles) non stop.
- bduerst 12y agoIn the migratory case they double their weight in body fat before embarking.
- autokad 12y agointeresting. i wonder if they had to mate at an early age or never, and if after they got to a certain size that they barely moved at all, just stood there and used their necks to reach new food
- Tloewald 12y agoMaybe the females just stored a bunch of sperm, or the males were tiny.
- CatMtKing 12y agoI thought it wasn't uncommon for some reptiles to continue growing for their entire lives? Don't fish do it too? Edit: it also says on wikipedia that they slow down in adulthood, so maybe it is somewhat different http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminate_growth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminate_growth
- jfb 12y agoI know you didn't say this, but it's important to remember that dinosaurs aren't reptiles. They're dinosaurs. EDIT: Well blow me over. They most certainly were. My five year old self is hanging his head in shame.
- jfb 12y ago"They also mention that it would have had to spend almost the entirety of it's life eating, rarely even sleeping, and that simply falling over could have greatly harmed it." I know that feeling.
- anigbrowl 12y agoI wondered the same thing as soon as I saw the headline. Endless growth doesn't seem like a sustainable strategy for a land animal. How was it supposed to reproduce? If it needed to eat so much then two of them in the same area would seem like a starvation risk, to say nothing of of the risks of injury or death during mating.
- mcv 12y agoThat's exactly what I was thinking. Could the rest of its species be slightly more reasonable sized, while this particular specimen had some kind of growth disorder? But I suspect any large sauropod would need too much specialized adaptation to survive at a larger than usual size.