SMALL, BIG, BIG, SMALL

["D.W.Naish" <dwn194@soton.ac.uk>]

Just a quick note to remind that the loose size brackets applied to dinosaurs
are totally relative, and don't correspond to whichever of those terms we might
apply to modern tetrapods. 

For example, because dinosaurs have stereotypically always been thought of as
huge (as, by modern standards, sauropods are), all those less than, say, rhino
sized get called 'small'. It's best to point out, for example: 'Though a dwarf
compared to earlier sauropods, some of which may have weighed in excess of 100
tons, _Alamosaurus_ was a giant in its own time'. And, indeed, in ours: how
often do you see a 30 ton animals strolling around?

Dromaeosaurids (bar the half-ton giants) and troodontids, for example, are
'small dinosaurs', despite the fact that they can weigh up to 70 or so kg. 70
or so kg animals alive today include leopard, komodo dragon, wolf, blue shark
and perhaps Mike Tyson - now, would you call any of those 'small'?

I'm beginning to worry about my estimate of kilogrammage in an adult human. Can
anyone correct me? I don't have any scales handy.

"People of Earth - we have come for your daughters!"

DARREN NAISH