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What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?

thewalrus.ca

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Re: What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?

#141

Post by ben_w »

jameshart wrote: post #138
worldsayshi wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't directly answer your question but adds some interesting context. Some dinosaurs shouldn't be able to fly in the current atmosphere: https://lru.praxis.dk/Lru/microsites/hvadermatematik/hem1dow...

Luckily they evolved feathers and manage just fine.

They had feathers when they were dinosaurs, and they’re smaller now.

I can’t usefully comment on most of the actual science in that paper, but I already had reasons to expect significant changes to the total mass of the atmosphere before reading it — the difference between today and the pre-oxygen apocalypse era (~2.4 Gy) implies at least a change of either 0.21 bar (if the oxygen came from the water) or 0.07 bar (if it all came from CO2).

I have no idea what to also anticipate from geology, impacts, or other things life might do besides the GOE.

Re: What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?

#142

Post by jameshart »

ben_w wrote: post #141
jameshart wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily they evolved feathers and manage just fine.

They had feathers when they were dinosaurs, and they’re smaller now. I can’t usefully comment on most of the actual science in that paper, but I already had reasons to expect significant changes to the total mass of the atmosphere before reading it — the difference between today and the pre-oxygen apocalypse era (~2.4 Gy) implies at least a change of either 0.21 bar (if the oxygen came from the water) or 0.07 bar (if…

When they were feathered dinosaurs, though, they couldn’t fly.

Re: What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?

#143

Post by ben_w »

jameshart wrote: post #142
ben_w wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They had feathers when they were dinosaurs, and they’re smaller now. I can’t usefully comment on most of the actual science in that paper, but I already had reasons to expect significant changes to the total mass of the atmosphere before reading it — the difference between today and the pre-oxygen apocalypse era (~2.4 Gy) implies at least a change of either 0.21 bar (if the oxygen came from the water) or 0.07 bar (if…

When they were feathered dinosaurs, though, they couldn’t fly.

Both unclear[0], and also given the end of that sentence, unimportant.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeopteryx#Flight

Re: What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?

#144

Post by downrightmike »

moloch-hai wrote: post #113
downrightmike wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Venus has a CO2 atmosphere, so the upper bar is very high.

While it is true that there are no wildfires on Venus, there is also no wood, or oxygen. Any oxygen released immediately reacts with the dirt to make, largely, more CO2. If you wanted to terraform Venus, you would need to make diamonds out of the air so the carbon wouldn't just burn again. The oxygen you release would then react with the dirt and rocks to make more familiar minerals, and more CO2, of course. For a lo…

Yeah, I was pointing out that atmos can store a ton of CO2, past a certain point life be damned. Our lungs only work on the differential in the air lower to our body's.

Re: What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?

#146

Post by moloch-hai »

jvanderbot wrote: post #83
moloch-hai wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, not ornithischian. For those in the back, sauropods, despite appearances , run with the tyrannosaurs and birds, not the triceratopses and hadrosaurs. Or anyway walk. Or did. My solution to their energy problem is eusociality: big Mama stays put and is fed by the small fry who range far and wide. They also tend her eggs. She eats their first-level output, then they eat her better-digested leavings. The digestio…

Well that was the most interesting sci-fi-that-might-be-real I've read all week.

"Be sure to tip your wait staff."

Re: What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?

#147

Post by citizenpaul »

BurningFrog wrote: post #111
chasil wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I understand, keeping such creatures alive would require facilities with enriched oxygen. If the large ones escaped, they would suffocate. "...large dinosaurs really required to be living in an oxygen tent. An atmosphere in the neighborhood of 35 percent oxygen would be considerably more compatible with large dinosaurs than one in the neighborhood of 28." Volcanic activity in the Cretaceous enabled these hi…

Well, maybe, but humans can live at altitudes with about to half our normal oxygen levels, so maybe dinosaurs would have similar tolerances.

Humans are really exceptional in their ability to survive in a large range of environments. If you do some reading about just how fragile many if not most animals are in regards to their environment you will surprised that they exist at all.
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