this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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With wings that tiny I doubt a T-Rex was doing much gliding either, considering its size.
The atmosphere was different then.
That enabled animals to grow as large as they did, and it enabled massive pterosaurs like Quetzalcoatlus to exist. And even Quetzalcoatlus, which is much lighter and had much larger wings than T. rex, has been the subject of debate as to whether and to what extent it could fly. Both existed in the late Cretaceous period.
the atmosphere 66 million years ago wasn't that different to the atmosphere today, the reason why pterosaurs like quetzalcoatlus was able to grow to such massive sizes was because they had extremely light skeletons. higher oxygen levels did allow arthropods to grow to giant sizes during the carboniferous, but it would have little effect on how large vertebrates could grow.