Dino Demise Led to Evolutionary Explosion of Huge Mammals

LiveScience ^ | 25 November 2010 | Janelle Weaver

[Ghotier]

FTA: (quote) The team went on to discover that maximum body size was linked to global temperatures and available land area. Colder temperatures favor the evolution of huge organisms, because they retain heat better than tiny critters as a result of their lower surface-to-volume ratio. Gigantic animals also need greater acreage to find enough food, and the end-Cretaceous extinction provided more open terrain for mammals to thrive and grow.

So as I suspected... what this really means is the huge “BANTHA” desert critters of Star Wars or the huge “DESERT WORMS” of Dune are ecologically bogus? I thought so.

(This is a first post, so please bear with me.)

[Radio Free American?]

“The maximum size of mammals leveled off about 25 million years later, or 40 million years ago, because of external limits set by temperature and land area”

This explains childhood obesity being on the increase. Global warming has triggered the process again and no amount of fruits and veggies can slow it down!

Gee, Mrs. Obama must be bumming over this news.

[null and void]

(This is a first post, so please bear with me.)

Ok...

[RipSawyer]

You were close, Dino Demise decided that Dion DiMucci was a better name, he then joined the Belmonts and recorded hits like this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBtmaq0J2kU

and my favorite,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRjviO8negQ&feature=fvsr

[righttackle44]

Yeah. I recall he made a film called “The Last Chinese Boss Guy.” He sang the theme/title song with a group called the Bida Boys.

[righttackle44]

LOL.

[righttackle44]

Coupla good ones there.

[RipSawyer]

You got it wrong, COLDER temperatures favor larger animals, smaller ones do better in hot temperatures. Don’t ask me to explain African Elephants, just remember that ice age Mammoths were bigger than Elephants.

[going hot]

Don’t ask me to explain African Elephants

The ears.

They provide more surface for heat radiation, otherwise they too would overheat, as the body mass generates more heat than the body surface can radiate. Probably also have a slower metabolic rate.

[exDemMom]

On first glance, I thought the headline was about a particularly messy and dramatic way of removing whale carcasses from beaches.

[mamelukesabre]

The easy answer is temps have much less to do with it than humans. Humans don’t coexist very well with extremely large animals. Two reasons why:

1) they don’t scare away very well so they tend to make the women and children nervous
2) they are a gold mine for meat, hide, and bone implements.

The question we should be asking is...why were the extremely large animals NOT exterminated in some places in the world? Poor hunters or smarter animals?

[Abin Sur]

The question we should be asking is...why were the extremely large animals NOT exterminated in some places in the world? Poor hunters or smarter animals?

Large African animals evolved right alongside humans. Check out how animals fared on other continents once H. Sapiens encountered them:

[mamelukesabre]

Interesting they left out asia and europe.

Lets examine the major domesticated animals and where they came from and see if there is a pattern...

horse: mongolia
dog: tibet
ox/cattle: europe
goat: southwest asia
sheep: same as goat
chicken: southeast asia
pig: southwest asia
one hump camel: southwest asia
two hump camel: east asia

definitely a pattern. They all come from the two areas of the planet your graphs left out. Why is that? Why were those two areas left out? europe and asia? Notice no domesticated animals of importance come from the americas or africa or any other places in your charts. Don’t you find that odd?

Lets examine domesticated plants now...

wheat: southwest asia
barely: southwest asia
oat: southwest asia
rye: asia minor
rice: east asia
millet: east asia
potato: south america
onion: egypt
garlic: southwest asia
cabbage: southeast europe
turnip: southeast europe
artichoke: southern europe
broccoli: europe
cauliflower: europe
carrot: afghanistan
beet: southern europe
bean: central america
maize: central america
squash: central america
pepper: central america
tomato: south america
melon: persia
apple: asia minor
grape: asia minor
pear: europe
orange: southeast asia
fig: southern europe to india
date: persian gulf region
plum: southeast europe
peach: china
cherry: europe
lemon: china
banana: southeast asia
tea: india/tibet
coffee: ethiopia

WOW, only a few exceptions. Almost all came from those same places left out by your graphs. It seems africa, australia, and the americas(with the exception of central america) were populated by a bunch of lackluster hominids back in the prehistoric days.

[RoadTest]

Nice story. But it’s filed under “fiction”.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Racehorse.

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[SunkenCiv]

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[nomorelurker]

Don't know about the Bantha but the worms were huge creatures dwelling in a sand ocean with a whole planet to roam. They were relatively rare on the planet. Hence “Spice” was rare. Frank Herbert was something of an Ecologist before the term got it's current theme.

Read the opening part of Dune. Set's up story nicely whatever one may think of the rest of it or the rest of the series. Not talking the movies here.

[TheOldLady]

It’s a good thing I read your post before saying something so lame as, “You left out a few continents, FRiend.”

Thanks.

[pabianice]

Yes. Those peaceful Native Americans massacred to extinction every large American mammal except for the bison.

[colorado tanker]

Mammals around the world exploded in size after the major extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period

Boy, did they ever.