Re: Re: Re: Life's scale reduction since the Dinosaurs

[Thomas_R_HOLTZ@umail.umd.edu (th81)]

>On Thu, 25 Jan 1996, th81 wrote:
>
>> >
>> >Odd.  You do realize, of course, that the largest dinosaurs came at the 
>> >*middle* of the Mesozoic,
>> 
>> A Dino Myth alert!  Unless Amphicoelias was real, all the largest sauropods
>> are Cretaceous: Cenomanian Argentinosaurus and late Senonian (Campanian?
>> Maastrichtian?  Have to check) Argyrosaurus and "Antarctosaurus" giganteus
>> outclass the big Jurassic sauropods.
>
>Sorry for the mental lapse.  BTW, what do you mean "unless Amphicoelias 
>[fragillimus]  was real?"  Even the one dorsal vertebra indicates that 
>there was SOMETHING very large wandering around back then!
 
It turns out that the broken neural arch was never even collected!  No
photographs, not lithographs, only field measurements and a line drawing.
It is not unreasonable that it was real, but it cannot be confirmed (unless
Ken Carpenter or someone else manages to find new bits of it!).
>
>Anyway, the presence of ultra-large sauropods at the end counters the 
>"shrinking life" theory even better.
>
>Or maybe the "shrinking life" theory is just a corollary of the "growing 
>earth" theory.  I must tell the guys over at sci.bio.paleo about this one...

Indeed!  At least it matches the "physics" of a growing Earth: Ted Holden
has got the whole situation bass-ackwards!

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist
Dept. of Geology
University of Maryland
College Park, MD  20742
Email:Thomas_R_HOLTZ@umail.umd.edu (th81)
Fax: 301-314-9661
Phone:301-405-4084