Re: Resources, energetics and dinosaur maximal size

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

On Mon, 27 Jul 2009, Jura wrote:
> > [...]
>
> McNab operates under the assumption (laid out in the paper) that the 
> largest terrestrial mammal known to have existed (_Paraceratherium_ 
> sp.), was probably operating at, or near the maximum FMR for terrestrial 
> animals in a terrestrial ecology. In this case, it would be about 
> 170,0000 calories a day. The largest dinosaurs were about 8 times the 
> size of _Paraceratherium_. If they were given a mammalian metabolism, 
> and concomitant FMR (as detailed in the paper) then a 56 tonne 
> _Brachiosaurus altithorax_ would have to digest some 561,000 calories a 
> day. This is asking a lot for plant productivity of any time period.

It's asking a lot of the animal involved. That's a lot of eating and 
effort.

> [...]