Dinosaur unearthed in Argentina could be largest land animal ever • Hacker News Board

Re: Dinosaur unearthed in Argentina could be largest land animal ever

#51

Post by goodcanadian » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 8:15 AM UTC

gorgoiler wrote: post #50

It’s only just occurred to me that dinosaur bones like this are in soil not rock? Even if it’s not technically soil , the bones are at least buried in something fairly soft. That’s crazy. I’ve only ever thought of fossils as being encased inside hard rock. The bias of the fossil record makes a discovery like this so unlikely that it’s objectively joyous when it happens.

Yes, fossils form in sedimentary rock, which is relatively soft rock.

Re: Dinosaur unearthed in Argentina could be largest land animal ever

#52

Post by halfdan » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 9:08 AM UTC

cromulent wrote: post #49

smabie wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

giraffes have super long necks and yet they bend over to eat. The answer is runaway sexual selection (or at least that's the answer wrt to giraffes).

This centuries-old question is still not settled, right? http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160629-giraffes-did-not-evo...

This article confuses me. Why does it make the scientists out to be on opposite sides of the aisle? A giraffe that wins a neck to neck fight is also one that may have better chances of finding food high up a tree when resources are scarce - both can lead to better survival and hence passing of genes. It's not one or the other, it can can be both.

Re: Dinosaur unearthed in Argentina could be largest land animal ever

#53

Post by Andrew_nenakhov » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 9:55 AM UTC

"... paleontologists say what they’ve found suggests the dinosaur may be more than 120 feet long ..."

I really look forward to the day when US and its mighty allies Liberia and Myanmar would finally abandon these silly imperial units.

Re: Dinosaur unearthed in Argentina could be largest land animal ever

#54

Post by peferron » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 9:55 AM UTC

jacobkg wrote: post #46

There is a truly excellent children’s book about the discovery of the Patagotitan, also in Argentina. It was my son’s favorite story for months. Highly Recommended! https://kids.scholastic.com/kids/book/titanosaur-by-jose-lui...

Just ordered it, thanks for the recommendation :)

Re: Dinosaur unearthed in Argentina could be largest land animal ever

#55

Post by kzrdude » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 9:56 AM UTC

taneq wrote: post #14

nolroz wrote: post #10

Wow. Something tells me if this is the new record for land animals we'll eventually find something that lived in the ocean that's bigger than a blue whale.

There's always a bigger fish!

But has this theorem ever been successfully applied to whales? :)

Re: Dinosaur unearthed in Argentina could be largest land animal ever

#56

Post by chordalkeyboard » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 9:57 AM UTC

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #53

"... paleontologists say what they’ve found suggests the dinosaur may be more than 120 feet long ..." I really look forward to the day when US and its mighty allies Liberia and Myanmar would finally abandon these silly imperial units.

*metric day.

Re: Dinosaur unearthed in Argentina could be largest land animal ever

#57

Post by Someone » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 10:06 AM UTC

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #8

It could step over an elephant: https://paleontology.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/David-Att... from: https://paleontology.us/titanosaurus/

Unlikely, I would think. An elephant could walk under it, but “stepping over” IMO would require it to be able to lift both its front and back feet by the height of an elephant (and make steps the width of an elephant, but that, I think is feasible).

How high a hurdle can an elephant clear? I know they can put their front feet on a pedestal that’s, ballpark, ½m, but I don’t see them step over one.

Re: Dinosaur unearthed in Argentina could be largest land animal ever

#58

Post by jl6 » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 10:22 AM UTC

nolroz wrote: post #10

Wow. Something tells me if this is the new record for land animals we'll eventually find something that lived in the ocean that's bigger than a blue whale.

I can only imagine we don’t do much digging for fossils in the sea floor, given how inaccessible it is and how lightly explored the oceans are in general. The exception being sea floor sufficiently ancient that it is now land.

Re: Dinosaur unearthed in Argentina could be largest land animal ever

#59

Post by oblio » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 10:42 AM UTC

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #8

It could step over an elephant: https://paleontology.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/David-Att... from: https://paleontology.us/titanosaurus/

The weight estimate on that website has to be way off.

A male elephant can weigh up to 7 tons and they say that Titanosaurus would have weighed around 13 tons. Even with much lighter bones & co., at that size there's no way it would have weighed that little. A mammoth could weigh up to 12 tons, as another point of comparison.

A dinosaur like the one they depict would have weighed at least 50 tons, IMO.

Re: Dinosaur unearthed in Argentina could be largest land animal ever

#60

Post by me_me_me » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 10:54 AM UTC

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #8

It could step over an elephant: https://paleontology.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/David-Att... from: https://paleontology.us/titanosaurus/

What was it eating? Whole tree canopies? Those animals must needed amazing amount of land to sustain, even though cold blooded.