Re: Mesozoic - the heyday of life?

[Jonathon Woolf <jwoolf@erinet.com>]

dunn1@IDT.NET wrote:
> 
> From:          Jonathon Woolf <jwoolf@erinet.com>
> 
> >  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.
> 
> Brachiosaurus was a gnat compared to the Moon.  Let's remember
> that our point of reference here is ourselves. Compared to you and
> me, Vulcanodon was very big.  Gigantic, one might even say.
> 
> Regards,
> Larry

I wasn't using myself, or even humans, as a point of reference.  The
question was how mammal faunas stacked up next to dino faunas in size
and diversity.  My point was that up until the Mid Jurassic, the
dinosaurs hadn't produced anything that was significantly larger than
the largest mammals known.  

-- JSW