• Skua@kbin.earth
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    4 days ago

    Hippos and rhinos get pretty big on that diet! If anything plants are a better diet for something really chunky because plants cannot run away

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      The largest land animal today is an african elephant which is 14 feet tall. Brachiosaurus was 50 feet tall. They would need to eat an order of magnitude more because the cost of mobility increases with weight.

      Penguins, seals, and whales (and to a lesser extent hippos) can maintain this ratio because it gives them bouyancy while travelling in water.

      Plus, Hippos and Elephants are actually pretty big boned.

      • Skua@kbin.earth
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        3 days ago

        They would, but they also did. They were herbivores

        To be clear I do not actually think that they were as stocky as that pic. Point is that for land animals, though, eating plants actually is often the way to being huge

      • exasperation@lemm.ee
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        3 days ago

        Sauropods had hollow bones and air sacs all throughout for lightweight structural support. You can’t just compare sizes and assume similar density as elephants or other large mammals.