New paper on mass of giant sauropods

[Remko]

It seems there's a new paper by Gregory S. Paul and Eofauna's Asier Larramendi about the mass of giant sauropods, suggesting that they may have rivaled tha largest whales in weight, and attaining large weights (100+ metric tons) in land animals like sauropods may have been much easier than previously thought.

It's open acces here:

Body mass estimate of Bruhathkayosaurus and other fragmentary sauropod remains suggest the largest land animals were about as big as the greatest whales

[Stegotyranno420]

Let's go,take that Mammalia, y'all mammals better watch out! Sauropsids now got ichthyosaurs AND sauropods rivaling your oh-so-fancy cetaceans.

oh wait...

I hope these turn out true. If you think about it, one of the reasons sauropods grew so big was their airsacks, so while on Earth that would function as "negative weight" in reality it would add to their mass(not weight), although minimally. I wonder how large they would be if you added the "lost weight"

I do have doubts with Bruthakyosaurus. Such a large animal living on an island(at the time) seems unlikely but I am sure there can be a loophole.

[Remko]

I do have doubts with Bruthakyosaurus. Such a large animal living on an island(at the time) seems unlikely but I am sure there can be a loophole.

Well, to be fair, the island was India. And it was a huge place, not a small island like in Jurassic Europe. More like an island continent similar to Australia, except somewhat smaller. 

[Stegotyranno420]

I am aware of the size, but I am not sure what would be the limits for insular gigantism or dwarfism, but evolution can suprise

[GojiraGuy1954]

Gregory S. Paul strikes again

[Remko]

I am aware of the size, but I am not sure what would be the limits for insular gigantism or dwarfism, but evolution can suprise

Well, India is about 4,4 million square kilometers. Cretaceous Laramidia was also an island continent about 7,8 million square kilometers, and I wouldn't really call Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops and Alamosaurus, to name a few, examples of "insular dwarfism".

Compare this to Hațeg Island in Romania at about 80,000 square kilometers and where insular dwarfism was a thing.    

[Stegotyranno420]

You know R @Remko you are right, I stand corrected

[Ajax88]

Super cool to see another of those big time paleo mysteries get partially solved in my lifetime! Finding out Bruhathkayosaurus was legitimate and quite likely the largest sauropod currently known is up there with the discovery of the rest of Deinocheirus, and the Spinosaurus renaissance. A sauropod with a hind limb ~25-30% larger than Argentinosaurus is pretty spectacular. We are talking about animals with standing head heights north of 20 meters! Biological marvels to be sure!