Why paleontology is generally larger than modern organisms?

The concentration of oxygen in the air at that time was much higher than it is now, providing the basis for the survival of large organisms.

In ancient times, the oxygen content of the Earth's atmosphere far exceeded today's standards, and paleontologists know from fossil specimens that insects in ancient times were generally larger than in modern times. So, was it the high-oxygen atmosphere at that time that created the giant insects of ancient times?

During the Carboniferous period, 300 million years ago, giant insects lived on Earth, with a wingspan of nearly one meter.

Through the fossil record, scientists have found that before the dinosaurs, there were huge species on the earth, which were giant arthropods from the Carboniferous period 300 million years ago, including oversized mayflies, insects, and scorpions; spiders the size of spider plants; And 5-foot-long millipedes, and so on. One of the most amazing is the giant dragonfly, which can reach a wingspan of two and a half feet (nearly one meter), the size of an eagle, and the largest insect ever seen on Earth.

300 million years ago, these species flourished. At that time, most of the land was in the tropics, and plants flourished (after burying into the ground to form coal, the period is therefore called the Carboniferous). But after about 50 million years, from the middle to late Permian, these giant species died out.

Scientists have long speculated that perhaps changes in atmospheric oxygen levels played a key role in their rise and fall. Now, paleontologists are asking whether the rise and fall of these ancient dragonflies, cockroaches, and other super-insects, which are about the size of today's eagles, is related to the super-high oxygen levels.

The ancient climate was mostly humid and rainy, with lush plants and plenty of food for herbivores, which could grow very large through continuous evolution. The same is true for carnivores.

It is equivalent to the development of today's enterprises from extensive to intensive, and no longer need such a large size to maintain the need for survival, and the large and bulky ones do not adapt to the current environment, and most of them have been eliminated. In ancient times, creatures needed a large physical advantage for predation and other activities, and had an advantage over small creatures.

These experts will copy and paste, why are the ancient animals all big, and now they are not as big as their cubs, it's very simple, the big ones are all eaten by the ancient apes, the ancient apes, the cave people on the top of the mountain, what big tigers, elephants, bears, big pigs, big goals, easy to hunt, go back and the whole village can be fed.

Over the course of Earth's history, life slowly emerged and evolved, leading to the variety of organisms we see today. Biology is constantly evolving in the process of evolution, both in terms of life forms and ways of being. In the early evolutionary process, there were very large animals such as dinosaurs, which mostly appeared in prehistoric times.

Now that they are completely extinct, they can only be known through fossils. Many researchers have noticed why the animals of this period were so large. But why are these now-common animals getting smaller and smaller?

What is the reason for this phenomenon?

<>The climate at that time was certainly very different from what we have today, and scientists collected fossils and other samples and found that the climate at that time was much warmer than our planet today. So relatively speaking, the vegetation will be more lush, especially at that time, there will be more precipitation than the earth now, and the sun will be more abundant, so the plants living on the earth at that time will be larger than now. You'll definitely get more food**.

So when the plant grows plump and the volume is getting bigger and bigger, for the animals that eat plants, there will be enough food ** to provide more adequate nutrition for the animals, so that the animals don't have to worry about food, so these herbivores will absorb more nutrients and be able to develop more fully, when they are fully developed, their volume will gradually increase, and when the herbivores are not short of food, carnivores must also have more adequate food**.

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This has a lot to do with the oxygen content in ancient times, which was 30% more than it is now, so the animals in ancient times were very large.

Because the earth in ancient times was very rich in resources, and the environment was very good, there were no natural disasters or man-made disasters, so the size was relatively huge.

Because in ancient times, the oxygen content in the air was very large, at least 30% more than we do now.

Oxygen is abundant and the body is massive. Writer Yang Daxia Yang Ke revealed.

Caused by many factors.

From what I learned from the textbooks, one of the important factors is that the composition of atmospheric gases in geological history was different from the current content. The high oxygen concentration in it will make the animal significantly larger. At the current level of oxygen, it is not possible to maintain the huge size of paleontology.

There are two main reasons:

1.Air humidity, it has been shown that crustaceans of the same species grow larger in places with higher air humidity. The theory can also be deduced, because many lower creatures are still using ** or gills to assist breathing.

In the case of larger leaves or taller leaves, the less humidity in the air, the more difficult it is for the plant to supply water to the upper end of the morphology, and in the hot summer months, the leaves of the plant can be seen curling the leaves furthest from the main trunk first, starting to dry up from the edges.

2.The oxygen concentration, which has basically been explained upstairs, is that large organisms need to consume more oxygen. Just like a theory in mathematics, the ratio of the surface area of a ball to its volume, the smaller the ball, the larger the specific surface area.

Primitive tortoises don't shrink their heads, and paleontologists have found evidence that they looked weird 200 million years ago.