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Science

"Squishy Joints" May Have Helped Dinosaurs Grow To Giant Sizes 56

benonemusic writes "A new study in the journal PLOS ONE suggests that dinosaurs reached gigantic proportions relative to mammals because of differences in their cartilage, making their joints squishier and able to sustain greater amounts of force. Other factors contributed to dinosaurs' larger sizes, including their lighter, air-sac-filled skeletons, and some researchers point out that the sizes of some dinosaurs and mammals were approximately equal, so anatomical differences between cartilage in dinosaurs and mammals may not directly explain why some dinosaurs grew to larger sizes."
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"Squishy Joints" May Have Helped Dinosaurs Grow To Giant Sizes

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 25, 2013 @04:37AM (#45232003)

    The huge joints that dinosaurs would have rolled would be quite squishy and sticky. They lit them at volcanoes of course. Which eventually led the the dinosaurs becoming too lazy and destructive(the joints would start forest fires) to serve their alien overlords so they were killed off.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 25, 2013 @06:29AM (#45232327)

    Some of the best, brightest but ignored scientists in the world already know. The sun constantly bombards us with new energy which is converted into other materials. Over millions of years, this results in an increasing mass of the earth and and expanding earth. When Dinos were around, the earth was significantly smaller, and that's why not only Dinos but Trees were significantly larger back then. Gravity was lighter. Just look what happens to an Astronaut in zero gravity. They usually gain a couple of centimetres on their return. Imagine if the earth suddenly only gave us half the gravity. We'd all gradually get larger even in our own lifetime.

  • by drainbramage ( 588291 ) on Friday October 25, 2013 @09:03AM (#45232989) Homepage

    And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why they called it the Stoned Age.

  • by xevioso ( 598654 ) on Friday October 25, 2013 @01:13PM (#45236683)

    I agree. No one says to a 6 year old when they ask "Why is the sky blue" ...

    "Do you mean why as in motives or did you actually mean how it is that the sky is blue? Please clarify."

    because if you ask that, then they will say, "Why"

    and then you are screwed.

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