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Science question concerning large animals

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ForestryIs8nice
Posts: 745 - Karma: 40
just a science question, any one know/ have info on a theoreticized upper limit for the mass of an animal?  like, the blue whale is 150 ton or whatever, but without competition (from humans or whatever), how large could they evolve to be before it stops?  or like, on a planet much larger than earth, would it be possible for humanoids to exist at like say 50 feet tall?  just wondering
Sep 22 2008 4:45AM
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drumbumocdp
Posts: 3229 - Karma: 1,098
are you high?
Sep 22 2008 9:28AM
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clive_bixby
Posts: 1834 - Karma: 499
Sep 22 2008 9:45AM
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notomatoplz
Posts: 1377 - Karma: 29
dude thats probably the best thing ive seen ina long time
Sep 22 2008 9:56AM
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Bepo
Posts: 8195 - Karma: 17
well whales are in water and are neutrally buoyant so there's no real force exerted on them, hence why they can be so big. Humans and anything above water have to deal with stress created by the force of gravity. Someone 10 ft tall wouldn't be able to exist because the force would be too great on their bones.

If there was another planet with lesser gravity or people with stronger bones then it could be possible to have some really tall people
Sep 22 2008 10:32AM
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notomatoplz
Posts: 1377 - Karma: 29
what if their bones and muscles evolved at an equal rate to support there bodies, they could me 20 feet  tall and still have the same bone mass to height ratio as we do. dont you think?
Sep 22 2008 10:44AM
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Tinga
Posts: 11349 - Karma: 2,333
wow 50 ft tall people? big. but i'm thinking that since astronauts go into space and they exprience dystrophy from less gravity i dont think that our muscles could grow enough to make us so tall. but i guess that is because their muscles are used to earths gravity. well you know what we need to do. SPACE BABY!
Sep 22 2008 11:17AM
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BEARS.
Posts: 5380 - Karma: 696
i think were already there.
Click for larger image
Sep 22 2008 1:28PM
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RudyGarmisch
Posts: 25443 - Karma: 13,844
Its also highly dependent on the oxygen content of the atmosphere - higher %O2 means more efficient lungs, which can allow animals to get larger. Theres some famous equation, but its like every time you double the animals mass, the surface area that needs to be supplied with oxygen (eg, cells) quadruples.
Sep 22 2008 2:08PM
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beer.
Posts: 3096 - Karma: 44
but mostly its how much food is available.

the blue whale isn't going to get any bigger because being bigger would have no benefit.  it would just have to eat more.

humans are slowly getting bigger and bigger since more food is available.
Sep 22 2008 2:24PM
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[~_~]
Posts: 20239 - Karma: 1,273
Maybe it could grow legs, come up on land, and eat all these sinful hoomans!
Sep 22 2008 2:31PM
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RudyGarmisch
Posts: 25443 - Karma: 13,844
Bigger could mean a larger mouth to catch more krill. There are lots of pressures that drive evolution.

As for humans, I thought we as a species were projected to get smaller overall... cant find the article that said that though, could be wrong.
Sep 22 2008 3:42PM
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cashdebt
Posts: 2383 - Karma: 349
haha. he should take a walk. A long, long walk, take off some calories
Sep 22 2008 3:46PM
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Microcosm
Posts: 4765 - Karma: 153
living beings 'evolve' through natural selection according to their needs. they don't so much grow bigger randomly. if smaller whales started to die off whereas bigger whales were able to survive because of their size, then perhaps we'd see an overall increase in the average whale size as the bigger whales are continuing to mate while small ones die. physically how big they could get would depend on their bone structure, the amount of food available, and probably a whole lot of other shit that would limit them from reaching some sort of crazy maximum.
Sep 22 2008 3:48PM
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beer.
Posts: 3096 - Karma: 44
exactly.  humans are growing bigger cause food is so easy to get, and also maybe because girls prefer taller guys.

look at the american bison.  it normally is 6 feet or so at the shoulder, but the ones that live on catalina island in CA are much smaller cause less food is available.
Sep 22 2008 4:01PM
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MCIRONCOCK
Posts: 3094 - Karma: 30
I was watching a show about super morbidly obese people the other day. These people thought they ate like 4000 calories per day, and they like gave the health specialists a list of what they ate every day and each of them ate over 30,000 calories every day. They figured out that this one lady who couldn't walk more then 30 steps a day would have to walk fast for almost 48 hours to burn off the calories she ate. It was also the same amount that the average man is supposed to eat in two weeks, and like 4 times the daily fat intake. They estimated that she would gain 5 pounds every week until she died.
Sep 22 2008 4:42PM
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ForestryIs8nice
Posts: 745 - Karma: 40
okay okay.  what about maximum age- can we live till 2, 300??
Sep 22 2008 8:00PM
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morocco_mole
Posts: 635 - Karma: 17
yeah cuz in water you get supported by the ocean but on land you need larger and larger bones to support your weight so if you got to big then your bones would have to be so heavy you couldnt even move them so there is a limit yeah cause cross sectional bone area and mass goes up with lenght^3

OK?
Sep 22 2008 10:26PM
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Piste.Off
Posts: 11586 - Karma: 1,860
he should do porn
Sep 22 2008 10:31PM
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Malcolm
Posts: 15951 - Karma: 9,451

damn hes got the biggest nut sack ever. nope its his leg

Sep 22 2008 10:35PM
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VCharette
Posts: 4276 - Karma: 1,047
^
Sep 22 2008 10:37PM
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Franny
Posts: 3980 - Karma: 77
nice vid.
Sep 22 2008 10:40PM
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Fish_Sandwich.
Posts: 9108 - Karma: 16
what you should be asking is if we were on a different planet, and we were 20 feet tall, that would mean there is less gravity right, so you should be concerned about spin to win, when people are doing cork 3600's it would be out of hand.  And anyway, how are you going to ski a 182 Bacon if you are 20 feet tall.  And can you imagine how expensive a ski would be for a person who is 20 feet tall.  The ski press alone would cost so much mofuckin money.
Sep 22 2008 10:47PM
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