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

The square cube law doesn’t limit size. It just says that the weight of something grows faster than its size.

That’s okay if an animal is built to handle that much weight. Elephants are bigger than humans because their bones are proportionally bigger. They can handle it.

But if I took a normal human, and scaled them up to be the size of an elephant, they’d die. Our human body plan doesn’t work at that size. It couldn’t handle the extra weight.

Tldr: The Square Cube law isn’t a limit, it’s a design principle. As things get bigger, they need more support.