Skaven were REAL!!!

Skaven were real. Well, not the man sized intelligent rodents but there were 2,000 pound rodents that lived 2 to 4 million years ago. When I read this I thought now that would be a great addition to my army, a bull sized rodent

I always found it strange how life went started out tiny. Then progressed to gigantic proportions but over time life has downsized itself again. Just wait a few million more years and the biggest lifeforms on the planet will be single celled organisms

Here is the link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22684589/

I recently read it in the local newspaper, too.

Cool! Next they'll discover evidence of big cheese, also 2 to 4 million years old.

Sounds like the Giant Sloth

http://www.unmuseum.org/sloth.htm

Nothing says dinner like a 200 pound mammal that can't be bothered to move once in a while. I know, I know, it sounds like Corwin.

Poor Corwin gets picked on left and right. That's no way to treat our elders

I always wonder why dinosaurs and later some mammals got so big.

My current theory is that the amount of oxygenium was higher than now, or at least some part of the composition of the air.

And second I believe that humans drove everything much bigger than they themselves into extinction.

That Elephants and Giraffes survived may just be because of their ability to evade them, perhaps. Plus, Elephants can become *very* dangerous.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

I always wonder why dinosaurs and later some mammals got so big.

My current theory is that the amount of oxygenium was higher than now, or at least some part of the composition of the air.

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I think you had it correct with the oxygen. I remember reading somewhere that the atmosphere had a lot more oxygen in it back then, enabling more oxygen to be pumped into the body.

Yes, I have a vague memory of this, too, having read it somewhere.

To me, it's the only possible explanation.

Unless there's a better one, of course.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

I always wonder why dinosaurs and later some mammals got so big.

My current theory is that the amount of oxygenium was higher than now, or at least some part of the composition of the air.

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I understand that atmospheric oxygen did fluctuate during the Paleozoic (the time before the dinosaurs). It's currently 20%, but it was between 15% and 35% during that era. (The Earth with a 35% oxygen atmosphere must've been a pretty exciting place, since a soggy log would burn freely in that kind of atmosphere.)

However, I don't think there's a relation between that and the size of the dinosaurs (although 35% oxygen would permit pretty huge insects and spiders). For one thing, it's supposed to have dropped to 15% at the end of the Permian, and dinosaurs only showed up during the Triassic period which follows it.

And second I believe that humans drove everything much bigger than they themselves into extinction.

That Elephants and Giraffes survived may just be because of their ability to evade them, perhaps. Plus, Elephants can become *very* dangerous.

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Unlike mammoths, smilodons (sabre-toothed tigers), or woolly rhinos?

While humans certainly contribute(d) to mass extinctions, I think the full explanation may be a bit simpler. Giant animals tend to be specialists -- they need to eat a lot, and are able to do it because they've evolved into a particular ecological niche which they can exploit especially efficiently. Ecological disruption -- an ice age, or the end of one -- will kill off the specialists first, as their niches disappear; the generalists will be able to adapt to new niches and survive.

Prime Junta said:

Unlike mammoths, smilodons (sabre-toothed tigers), or woolly rhinos?

While humans certainly contribute(d) to mass extinctions, I think the full explanation may be a bit simpler. Giant animals tend to be specialists -- they need to eat a lot, and are able to do it because they've evolved into a particular ecological niche which they can exploit especially efficiently. Ecological disruption -- an ice age, or the end of one -- will kill off the specialists first, as their niches disappear; the generalists will be able to adapt to new niches and survive.

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I know this - but yet my intuition says me that humans might've played quite a role in their extinction.

If we look at how many species have been driven into extinction in the last - let's say 300 years - or even more - the numbrer is so great I tend to assume that humans have in general the nasty habit of killing everything that's to eat and that's bigger then they are - plus, when it's less dangerous.

The Dodo is the worst example of that.

And yes, I know that these animal might've been specialists so much that ven the slightest change of climate made them have less food - so that they died out.

This is the -from an scientific point of view - most appropriate explanation for it.

But still I have often the feeling as if humans have a tendency to seek for rather "neutral" explanation to keep the suspicion away from themselves that they might be responsible for whole species dying out.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

But still I have often the feeling as if humans have a tendency to seek for rather "neutral" explanation to keep the suspicion away from themselves that they might be responsible for whole species dying out.

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I thought it was common knowledge that we're responsible for the current wave of mass extinction.

What I'm not so sure about is whether we're responsible for the mammoth, the woolly rhino, and the smilodon -- and we're certainly not responsible for the T-Rex.

The atlatl was a huge invention. The last ice age certainly made the mammoth easier to hunt and the atlatl was the instrument of choice.

According to this though there is still a clan living deep in the heart of Russia.