Jdeutsch Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 I know this topic has been discussed- but I still have trouble understanding caloric balance in an animal that size with long neck that must have restricted flow of nutrients. Argentinosaurus huinculensis is even more difficult to imagine. 10-20 times the size of a large elephant? Elephants can eat 20 hrs a day in the wild. I suppose a very efficient digestive system would help- coprolites would give a clue if a coprolite could be identified. What are the thoughts on these larger species? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raggedy Man Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 (edited) Why would a long neck restrict nutritional flow? If this were the case, would it have grown to the size it did? Probably not. I would think this animal had sufficient muscles for peristalsis. Edited March 24, 2016 by Raggedy Man ...I'm back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 Never read anywhere that their long neck would restrict their diet. The mystery is how they processed their food into energy. The use of the gastrolith stones to grind their food an accepted method even been brought into question by the attached study which dismisses it and offers other possibilities. More questions than answers on this topic. http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/274/1610/635 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeutsch Posted March 24, 2016 Author Share Posted March 24, 2016 Vessel resistance ® is directly proportional to the length (L) of the vessel and the viscosity (η) of the blood, and inversely proportional to the radius to the fourth power (r4). Because changes in diameter and radius are directly proportional to each other (D = 2r; therefore D∝r), diameter can be substituted for radius in the following expression. http://www.cvphysiology.com/Hemodynamics/H003.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raggedy Man Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 I would think they had a circulatory system like or similar to that of giraffes. A giraffes heart weights 24 pounds and measures 2 feet long. Their blood pressure is double that of other mammal. With the use of a specialized system of valves and capillary networks, the giraffes heart has no problem supplying blood to the brain and body. I would look in their cardiovascular system as they're the closest living animal alive today with such a large neck. 1 ...I'm back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 Never did enjoy my fluids dynamic class in college but everything you ever wanted to know about the long necks of our dinosaur buddies is in the attached paper. Seems like the biggest concern with the length is breathing not eating but they have seemed to adapted quite well considering how many million years they lived. https://peerj.com/articles/36/ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raggedy Man Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 Never did enjoy my fluids dynamic class in college but everything you ever wanted to know about the long necks of our dinosaur buddies is in the attached paper. Seems like the biggest concern with the length is breathing not eating but they have seemed to adapted quite well considering how many million years they lived. https://peerj.com/articles/36/ That's a great article Troodon. Thanks for sharing this.Best regards, Paul ...I'm back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashcraft Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 It is also a function of what they were eating. They were not feeding on grass, which is hard to live on without significant specialization, and hadn't evolved yet. Don't know what would have covered the "prairie" of that time period. Sunlight adapted ferns maybe? Large size also allows for a digestion "vat" where numerous micro-organisms adapted to digest cellulose can aid the organism to get nutrition from material that would not normally be available to it (think horse stomach). They may have been a niche feeder, which is maybe why they became scarce. Brent Ashcraft ashcraft, brent allen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 I have no insights on this particular species. However, much depends on the total ecosystem and predator/ prey relationships, etc. These animals were really big...and didn't have much to worry about once they survived youth. They may have had the luxury of a slow metabolism and a lot of 'down time' . They perhaps didn't do much of anything but eat, sleep and breed now and then. May not have raised their young. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Their dentition is definitely not that of a foregut ruminant... I have wondered whether one evolutionary factor driving their gigantic size might have been the development of a very long hindgut digestive system; there is an asymptote in the economics of scale where the sheer length of the gut can support exponentially more mass of creature given an adequate food base. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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