> A large animal retains
> body heat in a cold climate much easier than a small animal. It is likely,
> especially considering the cold-blooded and semi-cold blooded physiques of
> the
> dinosaurs, that they grew in size to better retain body heat in a climate
> that was
> slowly shifting toward the chilly side.
>
> We can see this during the last ice age, when the woolly mammoth had grown
> to
> almost twice the size of the present elephant, and we had the Cave Bear, a
> creature several times the size of the largest grizzlies today, as well as
> the
> Sabre Toothed Lion, which was twice the size of present day mountain lions.
>
Ah well...
You just blew out of the water my next post.
Dino's are somewhat subject to question...in my mind...but MegaFauna are
rather more specifically documented. I beleive there ARE bones of those
critters still around...not just fossils of bones.
And if a Wooly Mammoth was twice the size of an elephant...ditto (cave bear,
and kitty kat)...then my speculation on tissue tensile strength and bone
compression strength just got blown away.
Too bad...
EvMick