The largest animals ever to walk
Sauropods grow heavier than any land animal before or since
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The Morrison Formation in the United States has yielded Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus and Apatosaurus. The combination of traits that made such size possible is well mapped: a bird-like air sac system that pneumatised the skeleton and gave efficient flow-through ventilation, an absence of chewing that allowed a small head on a long neck, egg-laying reproduction that permitted rapid population growth, and a growth curve faster than any living reptile. No mammal has come close on land — the largest, Paraceratherium and some mammoths, stopped around 20 tonnes.
For children
Sauropods were long-necked plant-eaters that could weigh 70 tonnes — ten times an elephant. How did they manage it? Their bones were full of air pockets that made them light, and they did not chew, so the head could stay small and the neck long.
Connects to
Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org