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Post by Venomous Dragon on Aug 17, 2013 1:12:32 GMT 5
All the good reptiles come from australia. Leave poor children in the gutter? How gentlemanly can you be if you see poor homeless children and decide to leave them to there fate. Considering that varanids are more successful right now wouldnt the crocs be the urchins? Australians are English... lol The proletariat masses, of course the finest of reptiles will be fewer in number, but greater in stature. Oh god this is fun...  then those masses rise up and kill the fewer oppressors, revealing there great stature to be an illusion. |
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Post by Vodmeister on Aug 17, 2013 1:30:10 GMT 5
Saltwater Crocodile
Great White Shark
Bengal Tiger
African Lion
Emperor Scorpion
Giant Centipede
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Post by Runic on Aug 17, 2013 1:30:57 GMT 5
Even then, Utahraptor would wreck any varanid Except if the upper estimates for Megalania are correct. A 4, 000lb 20+ ft crocodile would be in reason. A 4, 000lb 20ft or close varanid..... not so much |
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Post by coherentsheaf on Aug 17, 2013 1:41:59 GMT 5
Except if the upper estimates for Megalania are correct. A 4, 000lb 20+ ft crocodile would be in reason. A 4, 000lb 20ft or close varanid..... not so much 4000lbs is probably too large, but the largest centrum is from a very big animals, plausibly in excess of a tonne. |
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Post by Runic on Aug 17, 2013 1:47:25 GMT 5
A 4, 000lb 20+ ft crocodile would be in reason. A 4, 000lb 20ft or close varanid..... not so much 4000lbs is probably too large, but the largest centrum is from a very big animals, plausibly in excess of a tonne. How much in excess are we talking about? |
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Post by creature386 on Aug 17, 2013 2:02:58 GMT 5
I read the book which gave the 4300 lbs estimate. They said 320 kg is for a 5 m specimen, while 4000 pounds is for a 7 m long one (using isometric scaling, we would get less than 900 kg). Given that komodo dragons of the same length can show high variation in terms of bulk (according to Auffenberg), this may be even possible (although it still sounds too high).
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Post by coherentsheaf on Aug 17, 2013 3:23:19 GMT 5
4000lbs is probably too large, but the largest centrum is from a very big animals, plausibly in excess of a tonne. How much in excess are we talking about? Megalania was very robustly built and the question is how much more robust than Komodo dragons it was. Intuitively I would place the animal between 900 and 1500kg based on the reconstructed lengths of the SVL by Hecht and Molnar respectively ad comparison with modern KDs. Molnar used regression equations and came up with 1940kg, I think this is too much since the regression equation used had a high exponent. In any case this is for the largest centrum. The fossils referred to Varanus priscus vary greatly in size and I am pretty sure there was more than oe species, a conclusion shared by the latest paper on the subject. |
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Post by Venomous Dragon on Aug 17, 2013 3:32:23 GMT 5
How much in excess are we talking about? Megalania was very robustly built and the question is how much more robust than Komodo dragons it was. Intuitively I would place the animal between 900 and 1500kg based on the reconstructed lengths of the SVL by Hecht and Molnar respectively ad comparison with modern KDs. Molnar used regression equations and came up with 1940kg, I think this is too much since the regression equation used had a high exponent. In any case this is for the largest centrum. The fossils referred to Varanus priscus vary greatly in size and I am pretty sure there was more than oe species, a conclusion shared by the latest paper on the subject. multiple species? Interesting possibility, of course even if there was a great disparity between robustity and size between skeletons this could also be attributed to immature or younger indivduals. Also ive been meaning to ask you, do you have any info on when the ora died out on mainland australia? |
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Post by coherentsheaf on Aug 17, 2013 3:51:39 GMT 5
multiple species? Interesting possibility, of course even if there was a great disparity between robustity and size between skeletons this could also be attributed to immature or younger indivduals. Also ive been meaning to ask you, do you have any info on when the ora died out on mainland australia? Middle Pleistocene. |
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Post by Venomous Dragon on Aug 17, 2013 5:14:01 GMT 5
multiple species? Interesting possibility, of course even if there was a great disparity between robustity and size between skeletons this could also be attributed to immature or younger indivduals. Also ive been meaning to ask you, do you have any info on when the ora died out on mainland australia? Middle Pleistocene. thanks, If im correct that means on the australia megalania out lived the komodo? |
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Post by coherentsheaf on Aug 17, 2013 5:53:33 GMT 5
thanks, If im correct that means on the australia megalania out lived the komodo? Yes, two reservatios though: Giant varanids hardly fossilize, so we could just have some taphonomic problems. And we have vertebral remains of a very large varanid (larger than KD) that is at the same time probably smaller than Megalania from the end of the pleistocene, so it could be that average size just increased. |
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Post by Venomous Dragon on Aug 17, 2013 6:13:39 GMT 5
thanks, If im correct that means on the australia megalania out lived the komodo? Yes, two reservatios though: Giant varanids hardly fossilize, so we could just have some taphonomic problems. And we have vertebral remains of a very large varanid (larger than KD) that is at the same time probably smaller than Megalania from the end of the pleistocene, so it could be that average size just increased. wouldnt that potential put them in more direct competion with megalania? If anything you would think it would cause the ora's average size to shrink, not raise. |
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Post by coherentsheaf on Aug 17, 2013 6:22:54 GMT 5
Yes, two reservatios though: Giant varanids hardly fossilize, so we could just have some taphonomic problems. And we have vertebral remains of a very large varanid (larger than KD) that is at the same time probably smaller than Megalania from the end of the pleistocene, so it could be that average size just increased. wouldnt that potential put them in more direct competion with megalania? If anything you would think it would cause the ora's average size to shrink, not raise. Yes the principle of competitive exclusion would predict that or at least stasis. But there could be lots of factors at work we are missing- for example the climatic conditions could have favored gigantothermy. |
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Post by Venomous Dragon on Aug 17, 2013 7:29:17 GMT 5
wouldnt that potential put them in more direct competion with megalania? If anything you would think it would cause the ora's average size to shrink, not raise. Yes the principle of competitive exclusion would predict that or at least stasis. But there could be lots of factors at work we are missing- for example the climatic conditions could have favored gigantothermy. well non or atleast only partial shared ranges could also explain it. |
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Post by Grey on Aug 17, 2013 15:28:28 GMT 5
BTW I add Megalania to my listing, that is one unique behemoth in evolution too and a very recent one.
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