/sci/ - Science & Math

Sauropod sizes are ridiculous. Jose Canseco was right, only environmental factors (such as lower gravity) could have caused a widespread gigantism that is nowhere to be seen today.
Lower gravity could also explain increased Earth crust mobility and higher sea levels.
Debunk this, /sci/.

>>1952437
>It seems pretty likely to me that the vast majority of specimens we collect will be of the most common size for a given organism, and that there will exist much rarer fossils
somewhere that represent extremes of size for the same organisms...

Iwanttobelieve.jpg

pardon my sarcasm against a very reasonable and partially valid argument but I must point out some things:

1) try to recall the initial size estimates for Diplodocus hallorum (originally Seismosaurus), 42-56 meters, suspiciously similar to Amphicoelias fragillimus isn't it?

2) Consider the size difference between related closely genera or species like the ones you mentioned. We have a shitload of Allosaurus fragilis with a maximum length of about 9 meters. Both Saurophaganax and Epanterias are about +1/3 longer. Same goes for Diplodocus longus (27m) / Diplodocus hallorum (35 m)  and  Apatosaurus (22m) Supersaurus (33 m, this one +1/2 larger) pairs.

3) The size estimate for Amphicoelias altus was in the same league with most typical Diplodocus specimens. So I think that any rational estimate would put the size of its sister species in about the same class with Diplodocus hallorum.

4) We now many titanosaurian-macronaria genera that easily outclass all diplodocomorpha we know in size. Yet A. fragillimus magically appears to to outclass them all making a league of its own. Just look at the picture... it's like a FIND THE MISTAKE quiz.

sauropod comparisons

>>1652975
and let us not forget... when was the last time an arthropod or even a protostome reached nearly that size?....

what? 2,6 meters was the length of the largest arthropod?... what was that? the japanese spider crab has a legspan of up to 4 meters?.... HAHAHAHA FAGGOT! Even the largest invertebrate isn't longer than 14 meters and more than half of it is its tentacles.

also: Whales motherfucker!

>>1473459
how do we know that it can't get any bigger?

even terrestrial vertebrates reached nearly to its mass (or at least more than half of it)