Dinosaur die-off cleared way for gigantic mammals

WASHINGTON – They just needed some leg room: New research shows the great dinosaur die-off made way for mammals to explode in size — some more massive than several elephants put together. The largest land mammal ever: A rhinoceros-like creature, minus the horn, that stood 18 feet tall, weighed roughly 17 tons and grazed in forests in what is now Eurasia. It makes the better known woolly mammoth seem a bit puny. Tracking such prehistoric giants is more than a curiosity: It sheds new light on the evolution of mammals as they diversified to fill habitats left vacant by the dinosaurs.

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This is a great article. That advances we make everyday from the past. What do you guys think about this article and the update?

More credence given to the growing earth theory.

The reason the large land animals are so large in that theory, is that the earth was smaller then and therefore had much less gravity allowing such massive beings to exist.

If it was again large animals that came after dinosaurs, what changed to wipe all the large scale mammals out?

Surely extra food wasn't the cause as the article proposes, as there are still plenty of virgin forests where these giants should still be found.

Can you be more specific than just Eurasia, thats quite a large place, otherwise very interesting and informative.

reply to post by watchitburn


Are you referring to me? That's what the article mentions so take it for what's it worth. Maybe you would enjoy learning more from the article.

the most likely reason the giants aren't around is that when Pangaea broke up, the ecology of any one continent could no longer support the truly gigantic, as well if expanding earth is correct, then cube squared and caloric demands of higher gravity made them impractical