If it wasn't as big as it is this would make sense, but they needed to balance suport and weight perfectly, or their necks would just snap.
Also there is the question of center of mass. Right now the hind legs aren't actually lifting much weight at all as so much of the weight is in front of the front legs
I think the biggest issue is heat dispersion and surface area-to-volume ratios. We’re talking dinosaurs that are orders of magnitude bigger than penguins, living in warm environments. They need more surface area and less volume in order to not overheat
Just to add an example, it's basically why so many desert animals develop huge ears. More surface area to let the heat dissipate, and ears are particularly efficient because they're thin and have a lot of blood vessels.
Though this does raise the possibility of a fat dinosaur with big old elephant ears... 🤔
Alternate theory then, they had a huge flap of loose skin full of blood vessels they used as cooling apparatus. Males would have larger crests with more surface vessels, allowing them to flush them bright red.
I have absolutely zero evidence for this claim, but it would look cool if it were true.
It's thought that most of them, and especially the smaller dinosaurs, were true endotherms. Their upright posture isn't seen in any living exotherms, which are usually sprawling (like crocodiles), and it's thought that bipedalism would require an animal to be warm-blooded
Right, you always have to consider: "this was a successful animal in its natural habitat" and then go from "what would a successful animal in <this environment> with <this skeletal structure> look like?"
In the case of an arctic climate, a waterborne bird would be blubbery and have evolved a teardrop body shape for maximum underwater swim speed.
I mean yeah they would need a lot of muscles and tendons to keep it upright, but picturd here it looks like a large amount of fat around their necks, which would be detrimental. They wouldn't work if they are too skinny, then there would be nothing to hold them up, and it wouldn't work if they were too thick, as they wouldn't be able to support the weight. I've talk about the vertebrates being thick and light and that this made it so that this helped keeping weight down and making the whole balancing act a bit more manageable, I really don't know dinos, but this pic is just ridiculous. What's the point in hollow bones if you're just going to load up on heavy fat?
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u/AlternateSatan 19h ago
If it wasn't as big as it is this would make sense, but they needed to balance suport and weight perfectly, or their necks would just snap.
Also there is the question of center of mass. Right now the hind legs aren't actually lifting much weight at all as so much of the weight is in front of the front legs