'Biggest dinosaur ever' discovered • Hacker News Board

Re: 'Biggest dinosaur ever' discovered

#41

Post by mcv » Mon, May 19, 2014, 9:48 AM UTC

eponeponepon wrote: post #18

givan wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what was different before but also humans were bigger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_of_Castelnau

Nothing was different. The "Giant of Castelnau", even if he/she was actually as tall as the discoverer conjectured , wasn't wildly outwith the recorded range of human height - Robert Wadlow was 8'11" (2.72m) when he died, and was only 22. It's completely plausible to me that someone afflicted by the same disorder as Wadlow could've reached 3.5m just by being lucky enough to live longer, and it's also completely plaus…

"There were giants in the Earth in those days..."

I don't mean to suggest credibility for the antediluvian weirdness in Genesis, or Greek stories about titans for that matter, but this kind of stuff certainly makes you think.

Re: 'Biggest dinosaur ever' discovered

#42

Post by mcv » Mon, May 19, 2014, 9:54 AM UTC

daniel-cussen wrote: post #24

learc83 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's completely plausible to me that someone afflicted by the same disorder as Wadlow could've reached 3.5m just by being lucky enough to live longer, That's not plausible at all. Robert Wadlow as at the very limits of human height. He already numerous medical problems caused by his height and needed leg braces just to walk. There is no way a bronze age man with access to bronze age medical care was able to live lon…

I know little about the subject, but I'm sure there are differences between the limits of human height and the limits of biped primate height. If the giant of Castelnau were, as claimed, part of a "race of giants," it is not unreasonable to think this group explored the limits of biped height more profoundly, as a group, given that they could eliminate some (but not all) of the problems that height suggested. On the…

> "Even in antiquity, with Iron Age medical care, men commonly lived to 100 years,"

But that's not remotely comparable to someone growing 3.5 meters tall. Nowadays there are also plenty of people who live more than 100 years, and not all of them need extensive medical care.

Growing to 3.5 m is more comparable to finding someone who lived to 200 years.

Re: 'Biggest dinosaur ever' discovered

#43

Post by mcv » Mon, May 19, 2014, 9:59 AM UTC

dfc wrote: post #13

The crazy thing is despite being 10 meters longer than a blue whale this puny landlubber is still 100 tonnes lighter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_whale

It is pretty amazing that despite all those ancient giants of unimaginable size, the largest animal ever exists right now.

Re: 'Biggest dinosaur ever' discovered

#44

Post by mcv » Mon, May 19, 2014, 10:07 AM UTC

Yetanfou wrote: post #15

Yetanfou wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why bother, it'll taste like chicken anyway...

Hmmm, judging by the number of down-votes on my "it'll taste like chicken" comment I have the feeling I need to remind some of the evolutionary grandparents of the humble chicken. Remember that chickens, being birds, most likely are descended from small carnivorous dinosaurs. While the mentioned dinosaur is a vegetarian sauropod, both share a common ancestor.

I think diet may have a far bigger impact on taste than genetic similarity. Cows and pigs are far more closely related than chickens and sauropods, yet they taste very differently. Also, plenty of birds don't taste all that much like chicken.