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Large Mesothermic Birds?; How big can birds get?
Topic Started: Jul 14 2017, 11:20 AM (1,632 Views)
9Weegee
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I'm making a spec Evo project called the Lateoic, and the dominant species is birds. I want to make a large type of bird, but I need to know how big flightless birds can get.
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Yiqi15
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Flightless birds can definitely get pretty big, as seen with the elephant birds and moas. Also factoring in is availability of resources and competition from other classes.
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IIGSY
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Yiqi15
Jul 14 2017, 11:34 AM
Flightless birds can definitely get pretty big, as seen with the elephant birds and moas. Also factoring in is availability of resources and competition from other classes.
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Also factoring in is availability of resources and competition from other classes.
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resources and competition from other classes.
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competition from other classes
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other classes
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classes

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Edited by IIGSY, Jul 14 2017, 12:06 PM.
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Dragonthunders
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As Yiqi15 said, birds get pretty larger before, some taller as 3 m and with weights of half of a ton, however, if you want to make them longer as their theropodal ancestors for example, there would have to be a significant anatomical change in their hips to do so. The lack of a tail has caused their hips to project far forward to maintain a balance.
So if you can make your future birds to develop a tail or an elongated structure of the same nature, you could obtain much larger species of birds.
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9Weegee
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I don't want tails on birds, honestly. I was thinking of giving the larger birds a more bipedal stance

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Nyarlathotep
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Depends what you are after to be honest.

On one hand, the largest known bipeds in history were the giant South African sauropodomorph, which may have reached as much as 14 tonnes- similar to a large steppe mammoth. So that could be near the limit for bipedal animals under Earth gravity. If not, then the largest theropod known is T.rex, which maxes at 8.4-8.8 tonnes (the GDI estimate for Sue).

On the other hand, birds do lack the balancing tails of theropods so that might undermine it. Theoretically, they could have a more upright posture and 'big' hips and legs to act as a substitute for balance, thus distributing the weight in a different way. Of course, a strong spine and pillar like legs would be essential for such a lifestyle, though it would be optimal for giant browsers if that's what you're after. I think the latter possibility would be more interesting to speculate on than just theropods 2.0 which can be too generic.

Mesothermy would be helpful, though not necessary in cooler climates. Warm lush climates though definitely would need it. Bird digestive systems aren't the most efficient either so they could adopt a sauropod like system of feeding too, though they could do something else if you wanted to be distinct.
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Yiqi15
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Nyarlathotep
Jul 14 2017, 01:03 PM
On one hand, the largest known bipeds in history were the giant South African sauropodomorph, which may have reached as much as 14 tonnes- similar to a large steppe mammoth. So that could be near the limit for bipedal animals under Earth gravity. If not, then the largest theropod known is T.rex, which maxes at 8.4-8.8 tonnes (the GDI estimate for Sue).
I see what you did there.
Current/Completed Projects
- After the Holocene: Your run-of-the-mill future evolution project.
- A History of the Odessa Rhinoceros: What happens when you ship 28 southern white rhinoceri to Texas and try and farm them? Quite a lot, actually.

Future Projects
- XenoSphere: The greatest zoo in the galaxy.
- The Curious Case of the Woolly Giraffe: A case study of an eocene relic.
- Untittled Asylum Studios-Based Project: The truth behind all the CGI schlock
- Riggslandia V.II: A World 150 million years in the making

Potential Projects
- Klowns: The biology and culture of a creepy-yet-fascinating being

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9Weegee
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oh and should I also mention that like large tyrannosaurs, these birds have lost all of their feathers
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Archeoraptor
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we aren´t 100% sure of the t-rex thing,it may have a mix of feathers and scales,somewhere I heard holloow bones on birds don´t allow them to be as big as other naiamls but afaik sauropods and teropods also had them unless I´m confusing them with air sacks
still birds coulññd lose hollow bones liek penguins did,still nto sure about this so don´t takerinto accoutn unless soemonme probesit
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Gojiratheking106
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The thing about T.rex and the limits of feathers on a big dinosaur is, as Archeoraptor said, still not known. All we got are patches of 1 mm scales the size of coins in areas which are usually scaly in feathered animals. Scales and feathers right now are equally possible. Hell, Paul Sereno said once that he has a T.rex skin patch that looks like bare, bird-like skin, making the thing a lot more complicated.
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9Weegee
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First off, the scale impressions are not as small as a "coin". they are larger, and are found on areas that are normally depicted with feathers, for example, the illium, the back, and the top of the neck. not only that, but we can also find out that from other tyrannosaurs, with similar patches of scales. tyrannosaurs were most likley scaly.

Second off, your obviously quoting Trey the Explainer. He makes baseless assumptions and doesen't back it up too well, and he smells of bias from miles away.
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IIGSY
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Dragonthunders
Jul 14 2017, 12:46 PM
As Yiqi15 said, birds get pretty larger before, some taller as 3 m and with weights of half of a ton, however, if you want to make them longer as their theropodal ancestors for example, there would have to be a significant anatomical change in their hips to do so. The lack of a tail has caused their hips to project far forward to maintain a balance.
So if you can make your future birds to develop a tail or an elongated structure of the same nature, you could obtain much larger species of birds.
Didn't the future is far have giant geese?
Projects
Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates
Last one crawling: The last arthropod

ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess)

Potential ideas-
Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized.
Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal.
Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents.

Quotes


Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups


In honor of the greatest clade of all time


More pictures


Other cool things


All African countries can fit into Brazil
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Gojiratheking106
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Well, not all are, but they are really small for a multiton animal. There are no impressions from the back and the neck one isn't specified. We just know it's from the neck. And the illum doesn't really tell us a lot. Tail was naked, the illum was pretty close. Furthermore, in Bell et. al. it was mentioned that feathers along the back are still possible.

And no, I'm basing this off Thomas R. Holtz, Andrea Cau and Paul Sereno's word. Plus Trey's logic, while maybe a little biased, seems alright to me.
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Talenkauen
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Yeah, even with the scaly patches, I don't see any reason why T.rex still can't occur along the neck,back and tail. I don't agree with Trey either, at least on certain levels (especially is abhorrent mispronunciations), but that claim doesn't just come from him. A lotta experts say it, too.
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LittleLazyLass
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Yeah Trey the Explainer wasn't some one off in this case, other people like those Gojiraking specified made various points about why the study could be wrong. The consensus is very much that Tyrannosaurus might've been scaled or feathered, we just don't know.
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