Re: Mesozoic - the heyday of life?

[Jonathon Woolf <jwoolf@erinet.com>]

GSP1954@aol.com wrote:
> 
> The observation by JSW that dinosaurs took a long time to become gigantic is
> incorrect. The first big sauropod, Vulcanodon, appeared in the very early
> Jurassic. Truly gigantic sauropods appeared by the Middle Jurassic. Sauropods
> were giants for about 140 million years, a record matched by no other
> tetrapod group.
> 

Um, I *really* hate to have to disagree, but I have to disagree. <g> 
_Vulcanodon_ was about 6.5m long, maybe 2m at the shoulder, probably no
more than a couple of tons in mass.  That wouldn't look very impressive
next to your average bull African elephant.  Malina Temboz ("The
Mountain That Walks," the largest African elephant ever recorded)
probably doubled a vulcanodon's mass, and tripled its reading on the
"GOOD GAWD DAT'S A BIG ANIMAL!" meter. :-)  No, I wouldn't call
_Vulcanodon_ very big.  Certainly not next to mammoths, or
_Indricotherium_, or even its own later cousins like _Apatosaurus_ and
_Diplodocus_.  And next to _Brachiosaurus_, _Vulcanodon_ was a gnat.    

-- JSW