Could Land Mammals Ever Evolve To Be As Big As The Dinosaurs?

The full-grown animal that has ever existed on Earth isalive today , and swimming around in the oceans . But most land mammals , impressive though an elephant may be , appear like a tinyelephant shrewin comparison to the mightyBrachiosaurus .

The speculative news is , we are probably not perish to see land mammals the size of it ofBrachiosaurus . After the demise of the dinosaurs , mammals did commence to grow larger all over the humankind , make full a niche leave by the self-aggrandizing scaly monsters .

" During the Mesozoic , mammalian were small , " University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology professor John Gittleman say in astatement , after conducting inquiry into fauna sizes around the world . " Once dinosaur went nonextant , mammals evolve to be much orotund as they diversified to fill ecological niches that became available . "

" Having so many unlike filiation independently evolve to such exchangeable maximal size suggests that there were like ecological function to be fill by jumbo mammals across the Earth , " Gittleman added . " The consistence of the convention powerfully entail that biota in all regions were responding to the same ecologic constraints . "

Among the large meet the dinosaurs ' monumental skid wasParaceratherium , an ancient ancestor to the rhinoceros , weighing 15 - 20 tonnes and measuring 5 meters ( 16 human foot ) to its berm . telling though this is , dwarfing today ’s land mammal , it ’s not up there with the biggest of dinosaurs .

Unfortunately , even if the term were right for such a mammal to grow to this sizing , we are likely limited by our biology .

" Mammals are what are called endotherms , " life scientist Felisa Smith explained toEarthSky . " They regulate their own body temperature . A mammal of a given size of it use ten times more energy than does a reptile or a dinosaur of the same size . "

" In other parole , mammalian ca n’t germinate body as large as the great dinosaur because they want to use so much of their physical energy – furnish by the nutrient they eat – towards keeping their bodies tender . For object lesson , we humankind need to maintain a temperature of 98.6 academic degree Fahrenheit , or 37 degrees Celsius , for stay alive . But dinosaurs , like today ’s reptiles , did not regulate their body temperature , and the extra push allow them to grow larger . "

So , to do the rubric ’s question , no . But keep your eyes on lizards .