Why Were Dinosaurs So Big Facts and Theories

One of the things that make dinosaurs so appealing to kids and adults is their sheer size: plant-eaters like those of the genera Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus weighed in the neighborhood of 25 to 50 tons (23–45 metric tons), and a well-toned Tyrannosaurus Rex or Spinosaurus genus members tipped the scales as much as 10 tons (9 metric tons). From the fossil evidence, its clear that, species by species, individual by individual, dinosaurs were more massive than any other group of animals that ever lived (with the logical exception of certain genera of prehistoric sharks, prehistoric whales, and marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs, the extreme bulk of which were supported by the natural buoyancy of water). However, whats fun for dinosaur enthusiasts is often what causes paleontologists and evolutionary biologists to tear their hair out. The unusual size of dinosaurs demands an explanation, one thats compatible with other dinosaur theories—for example, its impossible to discuss dinosaur gigantism without paying close attention to the whole cold-blooded/warm-blooded metabolism debate. So whats the current state of thinking about plus-sized dinosaurs? Here are a few more or less interrelated theories. Theory No. 1: Size Was Fueled by Vegetation During the Mesozoic Era, which stretched from the beginning of the Triassic period 250 million years ago to the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago, atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide were much higher than they are today. If youve been following the global warming debate, youll know that increased carbon dioxide is directly correlated with increased temperature, meaning the global climate was much warmer millions of years ago than it is today. This combination of high levels of carbon dioxide (which plants recycle as food via the process of photosynthesis) and high temperatures (a daytime  average of 90 or 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or 32–38 degrees Celsius, even near the poles) meant that the prehistoric world was matted with all kinds of vegetation: plants, trees, mosses, and more. Like kids at an all-day dessert buffet, sauropods may have evolved to giant sizes simply because there was a surplus of nourishment at hand. This would also explain why certain tyrannosaurs and large theropods were so big; a 50-pound (23 kg) carnivore wouldnt have stood much of a chance against a 50-ton (45–metric ton) plant-eater. Theory No. 2: Self-Defense If theory No. 1 strikes you as a bit simplistic, your instincts are correct: The mere availability of huge amounts of vegetation doesnt necessarily entail the evolution of giant animals that can chew and swallow it down to the last shoot. After all, the earth was shoulder-deep in microorganisms for 2 billion years before the appearance of multicellular life, and we dont have any evidence of 1-ton, or .9–metric ton, bacteria. Evolution tends to work along multiple paths, and the fact is that the drawbacks of dinosaur gigantism (such as the  slow speed of individuals and the need for limited population size) could easily have outweighed its benefits in terms of food gathering. That said, some paleontologists do believe that gigantism conferred an evolutionary advantage on the dinosaurs that possessed it. For example, a jumbo-sized hadrosaur such as those in the genus Shantungosaurus would have been virtually immune to predation when fully grown, even if the tyrannosaurs of its ecosystem hunted in packs to try to take down full-grown adults. (This theory also lends some indirect credence to the idea that Tyrannosaurus Rex scavenged its food, say, by happening across the carcass of an Ankylosaurus dino that died of disease or old age rather than actively hunting it down.) But again, we have to be careful: Of course, giant dinosaurs benefited from their size, because otherwise, they wouldnt have been gigantic in the first place, a classic example of an evolutionary tautology. Theory No. 3: Dinosaur Gigantism Was a Byproduct of Cold-Bloodedness This is where things get a bit sticky. Many paleontologists who study giant plant-eating dinosaurs like hadrosaurs and sauropods believe that these behemoths were cold-blooded, for two compelling reasons: First, based on our current physiological models, a warm-blooded Mamenchisaurus type would have cooked itself from the inside out, like a baked potato, and promptly expired; and second, no land-dwelling, warm-blooded mammals living today even approach the size of the largest  herbivorous dinosaurs (elephants weigh a few tons, max, and the largest terrestrial mammal in the history of life on earth, those in the genus Indricotherium, topped out at only 15 to 20 tons, or 14–18 metric tons). Heres where the advantages of gigantism come in. If a sauropod evolved to large-enough sizes, scientists believe, it would have achieved homeothermy, that is, the ability to maintain its interior temperature despite the prevailing environmental conditions. This is because a house-sized, homeothermic  Argentinosaurus could warm up slowly (in the sun, during the day) and cool down equally slowly (at night), giving it a fairly constant average body temperature, whereas a smaller reptile would be at the mercy of ambient temperatures on an hour-by-hour basis. The problem is these speculations about cold-blooded herbivorous dinosaurs run counter to the current vogue for warm-blooded carnivorous dinosaurs. Although its not impossible that a warm-blooded Tyrannosaurus Rex could have coexisted alongside a cold-blooded Titanosaurus, evolutionary biologists would be much happier if all dinosaurs, which after all evolved from the same common ancestor, possessed uniform metabolisms, even if these were intermediate metabolisms, halfway between warm and cold, that doesnt correspond to anything seen in modern animals. Theory No. 4: Bony Head Ornaments Led to Larger Size North Carolina State University paleontologist Terry Gates one day noticed that all the dinosaurs in his research with bony adornments on their heads were the huge ones and set about crafting a theory as to their interrelationship.   Of the 111 theropod skulls that he and his research team examined, 20 of the 22 biggest predatory dinosaurs had bony head ornaments, from bumps and horns to crests, and just one of the dinosaurs under 80 pounds (36 kg) had such ornamentation. Those with the features evolved larger rapidly, 20 times faster than those without. More bulk helped it survive and hunt, to be sure, but ornamentation also may have helped it be impressive to potential mates. So size and skull features got passed down more quickly than a lack of them. Dinosaur Size: Whats the Verdict? If the above theories leave you as confused as you were before reading this article, youre not alone. The fact is that evolution toyed with the existence of giant-sized terrestrial  animals over a time span of 100 million years exactly once, during the Mesozoic Era. Before and after the dinosaurs, most terrestrial creatures were reasonably sized, with the odd exceptions (such as the above-mentioned Indricotherium) that proved the rule. Most likely, some combination of theories No. 1–4 along with a possible fifth theory that researchers have yet to formulate, explains the huge size of dinosaurs; in exactly what proportion and in what order will have to await future research.

Broken Connections Between Loved Ones - 1519 Words

Lack of communication is the root of not only broken relationships, but also can lead to the destruction of families, spouses, and communities as well. The following stories all tell about broken connections between loved ones. In which these broken relationships caused significant amounts of tragedy to the characters in the stories, including death, loneliness, and loss of the ones they love. While analysing the broken relations, the problems, disagreements, and misunderstandings could have all been solved with improved conversations between the characters. With regards to taking time to talk and listen to others, you will better know the ones you are relating with and the relationships will be stronger as a result of it. Not to mention these stronger relationships will persevere when trials come throughout our lives. When a couple is disrespectful of the others opinions and is unwilling to discuss issues, their relationship will suffer. As a matter of fact, we recognize this issue in the story â€Å"Button Button†. The husband and wife react to the button and proposal in opposite ways; Arthur views it as premeditated murder and immoral, while Norma thinks the money surpasses the cost of murder. The difference in opinion causes fights among the couple where they struggle to fathom the other person s side. (106). This causes the space between the couple continues to grow continuously distant as the fighting becomes extremely frequent and increasingly violent. For instance,Show MoreRelatedA Relationship Between Fathers And Sons Being Broken By Selfish Acts1234 Words   |  5 Pagesbook, the connection between Elie and his father, Shlomo Wiesel, slowly transitions from a broken father-son relationship to the point where they would risk their lives for one another. 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Interesting Quotes About Idioms Free Essays

citaty â€Å"People use idioms to make their language richer and more colorful and to convey subtle shades of meaning or intention. Idioms are used often to replace a literal word or expression, and many times the idiom better describes the full nuance of meaning. Idioms and idiomatic expressions can be more precise than the literal words, often using fewer words but saying more. We will write a custom essay sample on Interesting Quotes About Idioms or any similar topic only for you Order Now For example, the expression it runs in the family is shorter and more succinct than saying that a physical or personality trait ‘is fairly common throughout one’s extended family and over a number of generations. † (Gail Brenner, Webster’s New World American Idioms Handbook. Webster’s New World, 2003) ? â€Å"If natural language had been designed by a logician, idioms would not exist. † (Philip Johnson-Laird, 1993) â€Å"Idioms, in general, are deeply connected to culture. . . . Agar (1991) proposes that biculturalism and bilingualism are two sides of the same coin. Engaged in the intertwined process of culture change, learners have to understand the full meaning of idioms. † (Sam Glucksberg, Understanding Figurative Language. Oxford Univ. Press, 2001) ? Shakespeare’s Idioms Shakespeare is credited with coining more than 2,000 words, infusing thousands more existing ones with electrifying new meanings and forging idioms that woul d last for centuries. ‘A fool’s paradise,’ ‘at one fell swoop,’ ‘heart’s content,’ ‘in a pickle,’ ‘send him packing,’ ‘too much of a good thing,’ ‘the game is up,’ ‘good riddance,’ ‘love is blind,’ and ‘a sorry sight,’ to name a few. † (David Wolman, Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling. Harper, 2010) ? Levels of â€Å"Transparency† Idioms vary in ‘transparency’: that is, whether their meaning can be derived from the literal meanings of the individual words. For example, make up [one’s] mind is rather transparent in suggesting the meaning ‘reach a decision,’ while kick the bucket is far from transparent in representing the meaning ‘die. ‘† (Douglas Biber et al. , Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Pears on, 2002) â€Å"The thought hit me that this was a pretty pathetic way to kick the bucket–being accidentally poisoned during a photo shoot, of all things–and I started weeping at the idiocy of it all. † (Lara St. John) ? The Idiom Principle â€Å"The observation that meanings are made in chunks of language that are more or less predictable, though not fixed, sequences of morphemes leads [John] Sinclair [in Corpus Concordance Collocation, 1991] to an articulation of the ‘idiom principle. ‘ He states the principle thus: The principle of idiom is that a language user has available to him or her a large number of semi-preconstructed phrases that constitute single choices, even though they might appear to be analysable into segments (Sinclair 1991): 110) The study of fixed phrases has a fairly long tradition . . , but phrases are normally seen as outside the normal organising principle of language. Here, Sinclair extends the notion of phraseology to encompass a great deal more of language than it is commonly considered to encompass. At its strongest, we might say that all senses of all words exist in and are identified by the sequences of morphemes in which they typically occur. † (Susan Hunston and Gill Francis, Pattern Grammar: A Corpus-Driven Approach to the Lexical Grammar of English. John Benjamins, 2000) ? Modal Idioms â€Å"Modal idioms are idiosyncratic verbal formations which consist of more than one word and which have modal meanings that are not predictable from the constituent parts (compare the non-modal idiom kick the bucket). Under this heading we include have got [to], had better/best, would rather/sooner/as soon, and be [to]. † (Bas Aarts, Oxford Modern English Grammar. Oxford University Press, 2011) How to cite Interesting Quotes About Idioms, Papers