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A mystery to chew on

ANNE MCILROY

From Friday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 10:52 AM EST 30/10/08

Vegetarian sauropods grew to six stories partly because of the way they ate their food ...Read the full article

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  1. Colin C from Canada writes: "He and his colleagues studied whether the Earth was different during the dinosaur era, but determined that conditions were probably less favourable for plant and animal life back then than they are today."

    This statement seems out of sorts from fossil records - we have many examples of absolutely huge vegetation and vegetation that covered far more of the earth than it does today (semi-tropical in Arctic areas - though continental drift may mitigate some of this). I wonder if methods of measuring oxygen density from fossilized layers is accurate?
  2. Iain's Opinion from Canada writes: Obviously these guys aren't thinking straight. living conditions were suitable for the dino's, they ruled for a few hyndred million years, so it can't have been so bad for them.
  3. Whoa Aminute from Canada writes: And how did they do the sex thing?
  4. Alberta Marlowe from Canada writes: Imagine if they were six storeys tall, instead of six stories, which can be short.
  5. John Fedup from Canada writes: They produced massive amounts of excrement. I guess they were the world's first politians.
  6. Liam Smith from Canada writes: How is it possible for them to have been so large? If an elephant falls from a distance greater than about 1 foot off of the ground, it's legs will snap. Was there less gravity on the planet? Is that how they could get so massive? Wouldn't that mean that the planet would have been smaller then? Can somebody please explain this to me?
  7. Lefty Lou from Canada writes: First of all : Thank you Liam for an intelligent comment. I was thinking along similar lines when I saw snapshots on TV of the latest giant gorilla movie. (I haven't seen the movie) When he jumped from a height of about 20' the time taken & the effect was the same as a normal sized gorilla jumping from 1'. When he swung his arms to catch something the time taken for the swing was the same as a normal gorilla. If he was 20 the size, and a normal gorilla's hand swung @ 50mph, then his hand would have moved @1000mph, breaking the sound barrier. There are many reasons to think that the earth was very different from what it is now, even during the time of man. Many ancient calendars had a 360 day year. Now I know many would say that's because they were stupid. But it is likely that they were just as intelligent as moderns, though they certainly didn't have our knowledge. Just do a little math. They were out by 5 days. In a mere 10 years they would have been out by 50 days. They would have been sure to notice. There are limits to the theoretical size that a creature could grow to and those limits are set by the same reasons that limit the size that buildings can be made. i.e. the bottom bricks have to be capable of supporting the entire weight.
  8. Luke Powell from Vancouver, Canada writes: Ummm.... Lou, you're a little off on your math. Galileo quite clearly showed that regardless of how massive an object is, the force of gravity is exactly the same every time.

    As for the 360 day calendar, the Babylonians and Maya all ended up with 360 day calendars out of nothing more than convenience - it's much easier to calculate 12 groups of 30 than 73 groups of 5. They needed to have accurate timing for hunting and gathering, sowing and harvesting, and in some cases, travel.

    How did they solve the prblem of extra days? The Maya simply tacked on a 5 day month at the end of the year. The Egyptians did much the same, but made it a public holiday.

    By the way, many concpets of time and geometry come right from the Babylonian calendar. The Babylonians were the first to define a day as being 24 hours, an hour as being 60 minutes, and a minute as being 60 seconds. Why those numbers? They used a base 60 numbering system, stemming from their 360 day calendar - or more specifically, the 360 degrees in a circle they noticed when they marked the position of the sun every day at the same time.
  9. Liam Smith from Canada writes: I'm not sure I been given a satisfactory answer yet. By our gravitational standards T.Rex would not have been able to run after prey. What's the deal with that?
  10. K McIntyre from Oshawa, Canada writes: Liam, how fast did their prey run?
  11. Liam Smith from Canada writes: The point is that many larger dinosaurs should not be able to stand due to their own gravitational mass. What's the deal with that?

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