THE MASSIVE SIZE OF DINOSAURS
COMPARED WITH TODAY'S LIFE

One of the most obvious and intriguing facts about the dinosaurs, and indeed much land based prehistoric life, is that they could achieve surprisingly massive sizes in comparison to present day life.

This ability to achieve gigantic sizes conflicts with studies which indicate that large dinosaurs were much more agile than they should have been. It is a mystery which is emphasised by the paradox between the dinosaurs' size and lifestyle.

If we look at some of the largest animals of today they seem to have reached the upper limit of size. The African Elephant for instance is so heavy that the maximum speed it can reach is a fast walk. If it was larger it would not be able to achieve even this fast walk.

One method of removing these limits on the size of present day life would be to reduce gravity. If gravity was halved then the African Elephant would only weigh half as much, so it would be much more agile. Over time the Elephant would be able to evolve to become larger in size. It would once again achieve its present limited athletic ability when it was twice as large an African Elephant.

This simple observation about the change in life's maximum size in a different gravity leads directly to the theory that gravity was less during the dinosaurs time. The reason for the gigantic size dinosaurs, and other land based prehistoric life, may be that they evolved in a reduced gravity world.