A New Spin
"I'm astounded by people who 'want' to know the universe
when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown."
-- Woody Allen
'What is this?'
-- The short answer:
It's an attempt to rationalize the existence of the giant dinosaurs
in the past, even though their viability on the earth as we know it,
is puzzling.
--The long answer:
This isn't the intention here to introduce yet another theory for the demise
of the dinosaurs. Rather, it explores the past basic physical
parameters of the earth (not necessarily its environmental condition) that could enable animals, weighing some 100 ton, to thrive for millions of years. Inevitably, this line of inquiry leads to conclusions about the dinosaurs' ultimate extinction when these parameters suddenly changed. However, that aspect is only secondary to the more fundamental question: given their enormous size, what made it possible for these creatures to live and function on earth in the first place?
Not quite a "National Geographic" take
For the impatient:
Given what we know about the size and function of the giant dinosaurs,
their existence in the past is far from trivial. Can an eight ton
predator — twice as big as the African-Elephant — stalk
and chase prey the way how a lion or a tiger does?
A simple analysis based on fundamental physics seems to suggest that nature sets a limit on how big animals can grow while remaining viable on some hypothetically-existing planet of given size. Where animals maximum possible size is inversely proportional to their planet size (in other words, the larger the planet, the smaller are the animals on it).
This refers to weight, rather than sheer-size, leading to an inescapable conclusion that these giant dinosaurs weight was way less than what their size suggests to enable them to endure on earth for millions of years.
An examination of the possible cause that was responsible for that weight change leads to a conclusion that earth rotation on its axis is the only possible factor. The rotation speed must have been significant higher at that time than what it is at present. A faster rotation gave rise to much stronger centrifugal-force which opposed the force of gravity, and hence reduced the actual animals weight.
It also explains why dinosaurs remained cold blooded throughout their rein of million of years, and how a cold blooded hugh bird with wingspan of 40 feet could ever fly.
Next: The
bigger they are ...
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