Implying they’re capable of digesting meat, but absolutely shite at catching things. When you’re three stories tall and flat-footed you can only sneak up on a tree.
Firstly and most comically: Some sauropods swallowed rocks to aid in digestion, which are called gastroliths. While I only know of diplodocoids (think long and low sauropods) having used gastroliths, Brachiosaurus and other macronarians (tall sauropods, as seen in the picture) might have used them, although I’m not certain on that, as there is some differences in diet between diplodocoids and macronarians. If so, their vomit might have been even more dangerous, although the gastroliths are stored in their own organ iirc. (Just looked it up, there is gastroliths found that probably came from Cedarosaurus, which is a macronarian that was pretty closely related to Brachiosaurus, link: fr.copernicus.org/articles/18/…/fr-18-1-2015.pdf)
Secondly and most nitpicky: The picture shows fairly large dromaeosaurs, which don’t have a record of existing in the Late Jurassic when Brachiosaurus existed. Now, the fossil record is very incomplete, with one estimate putting the known number of Tyrannosaurus rex specimens at about one billionth of the amount that lived over the 3 million years that species was present. But there are no dromaeosaurs that I know of from the Late Jurassic, let alone the Morrison Formation where Brachiosaurus is found, which is one of the best fossil sites for dinosaurs. It isn’t impossible, the split between bird and dromaeosaurs was before the Late Jurassic, but it is highly unlikely, especially in the Morrison, as there were a bunch of predators that would have competed with a large dromaeosaur. Again, this last one is very nitpick-y. Still a funny image though
the propagation velocity of the action potentials in nerves can vary from 100 meters per second (580 miles per hour) to less than a tenth of a meter per second (0.22 miles per hour).
I know you’re joking, but it’s really a kind of reasonable mistake to think of a nerve as an electrical wire conducting a singnal at ½c. It’s wrong, but it’s also completely understandable. I wasn’t trying to imply they were stupid, I just happened to see this factoid in the last several months, and thought I could correct their innocuous error. ^^;
Not only was I joking, I thought it was impressive you even know what that is because I sure as hell don’t, it’s great you mentioned it, that’s the kind of awesome info I know will keep me coming back here. Cheers.
Speed of light in cables and fiber optics is about 2/3 the speed of light in vacuum. If it has to jump some electrochemical synapses, it brings it down to much less than that.
The forces vary depending on how fast you move it up. You might be thinking of energy not force, as in joules not newtons.
To elaborate, imagine you wanted you were playing air hockey, you have to hit the puck alot harder to move it fast than to move it slow even though both will reach the other side
So about the same eneegy it takes to keep a 6 watt lightbulb on for 19 minutes
Edit: oops i see you meant reply, thats a tough one that i cant really answer on the toilet. But using the formula work= F*D and some simplifying assumptions you could do it yourself
I dunno. Reverse peristalsis can be pretty quick and result in a pretty steady flow. I'd imagine they'd have to adapt to develop that regardless of how they're going to expel things, similar how giraffes are able to chew their cud despite their long damn necks. Wouldn't be projectile vomiting as we describe it though. In the end their entire neck is a pump.
Good point. However, the height difference between giraffes and Brachiosaurus is still quite significant. I am not well versed enough in the exact mechanics of this but maybe it won’t scale well. Additionally, the neck of Brachiosaurus was probably far more flexible than that of a giraffe due to the higher number of vertebrae so they may be able to lower their necks more easily which reduces the pressure to evolve powerful pumping mechanisms.
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