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my favorite pet theory about the predominance of gigantism in fossils is that the earth had much higher barometric pressure in the distant past. Higher pressure allows cells to grow larger since they can be oxygenated better.
So aminals had the same DNA, same number of cells, just each cell was larger.
This changed after earth’s pressure was reduced by meteor strike and/or global flood calamity.
Huge midgets.
Huh. They all died at one time. Interesting. Like- there could have been a great big flood....
A lot of the unknowns can be explained with two phenomena. The first is the unequal distribution of fossils. That is, fossilization is very rare, and only takes place in very limited conditions around the world. If these places become uninhabited, it seems like lots of species have disappeared. But in truth, it just means a gap until they next occupy a place where fossilization occurs.
The other phenomena is the flip side of this, called “the Lazarus effect”, where most of a species is killed off, leaving only a few small colonies behind, taking them a great length of time to repopulate regions in which they used to live.
Between the two, it is not surprising to imagine strange extinction and recovery events. We live in a very volatile world.
We have these and Large-sized gastropods (up to 7 cm) (some bigger) in our backyard here in central Texas. (elevation about 990 ft.)