How come dinosaurs like the titanosaur grow to such large size, when animals like the elephant cant grow larger due to the square cube law?

Question

As far as i know, there arent bigger animals around today due to the square-cube law, and yet their were dinosaurs the size of whales on land?

In: 906

Answer 1

I guess one of the main problem for elephant to grow is a cooling system. They are mammals, so they have high level metabolism that produce a lot of heat as a byproduct. In order to keep the temperature constant they need good cooling system, that why they grow huge ears filled with many blood vessels for cooling. They actually increase their body surface with their ears. Whales can grow bigger because water has much higher thermal conductivity, so they can regulate their temperature easier.
Dinosaurs were reptiles so their metabolism is slower they don’t produce that much energy/heat. Plus their body temperature is changing along with the temp of the environment. So cooling is not a problem for them.

If you think about it – you always see lizards, snakes and crocodiles lying on the sun in order to get warmer when all the mammals, like lions or antelopes trying to find a shadow.