• Pipoca@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Dinosaur lungs are much more efficient than mammal lungs. Their bones are lighter, too.

    It’s also why birds can fly so much higher and be so much larger than bats.

    • Zagorath@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m not comparing dinosaurs to mammals though. I’m comparing them to pterosaurs. Or more specifically, I’m comparing the specific dinosaur in question (T. rex) to the largest and most likely to struggle with flying of the pterosaurs, (Q. northropi).

      T. rex was, according to my quick search, at least 5000 kg. Q. northropi was just 250 kg at the higher end of estimates. The dinosaur had an armspan less than a metre, while the pterosaur’s was in excess of 10 times that.

      • Pipoca@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        That enabled animals to grow as large as they did, and it enabled massive pterosaurs like Quetzalcoatlus to exist.

        I wasn’t responding to comparing dinosaurs to pterosaurs. I was responding to the part about them being big because of the atmosphere.

        There’s a number of reasons we don’t have brontosaur-sized elephants. The differences in the atmosphere explains far less than hyper-efficient lungs and light bones.