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Dinosaurs like the Brachiosaurus weighed up to 40 tons. Scientists surprise with new insights into giant growth.
Dinosaurs were the giants of prehistoric times. With their weight and size, they surpassed all land animals that populated the earth after them. The giant among giants is again the Brachiosaurus, a long-necked herbivore classified as a sauropod. According to paleontologists, the impressive vegetarian weighed at least 40 tons and was up to 22 meters long.
The gigantism some dinosaurs have occupied science for decades. Now researchers at Adelphi University in Garden City (US state New York) have found amazing things. The gigantic growth of dinosaurs has therefore developed independently of each other much more frequently than previously thought.
Dinosaurs: Giant lizards evolved independently
According to a new study, it occurred within 100 million years 36 lineages with different characteristics and ecological niches to such giant animals, writes Michael D’Emic of Adelphi University in the journal Current Biology. For their study, the scientists used measurement data from fossil leg bones, from which they calculated the development of the body mass of almost 200 dinosaurs.
In the case of the dinosaurs, the researchers concentrated on the group of Sauropoden which gave rise to such well-known genera as Brontosaurus, Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus. Characteristic of sauropods are a massive body on thick legs, a very long tail and neck with a relatively small head. “It was previously thought that sauropods evolved their extraordinary size independently a number of times in their evolutionary history, but with the new analysis we now know that number is much higher,” D’Emic is quoted as saying in a statement from his university.
Dinosaur giants: why size mattered
The Climate probably played a minor role in the development of the giant dinosaurs, since there is no relationship between the global mean temperature and the body mass of sauropods. This, according to D’Emic, raises the new research question of why some lineages have developed gigantism while others have not.
On the other hand, the question of why the sauropods reached such enormous proportions has been largely clarified in science. Of course, just because of their size, the dinosaurs were better able to defend themselves against enemies. But even more important, according to scientists, is the fact that large animals cool down less than smaller. “Sauropods were probably warm, but didn’t have to regulate their temperature as much as today’s mammals,” says Daniela Schwarz, paleontologist at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. The bigger the dinosaur, the more energy it could save. The vegetarians among them in particular had to hardly move and thanks to their long necks they could graze the trees in peace. (tok/dpa)
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