New theory puts dinosaurs on a smaller Earth
The controversial theories of one of Australia’s most eminent geologists – the late Professor Sam Carey – have been revived and adapted to explain why dinosaurs grew to the gigantic creatures that dominated Earth 65 million years ago.
The new theory – building on Prof Carey’s ideas that the Earth is expanding – suggests that when the dinosaurs first began to appear 248 million years ago, Earth was a much smaller planet than it is today and had a much weaker gravity.
The theory suggests it was the weaker gravity that encouraged animals to develop to a gigantic size and enabled dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus Rex to weigh seven tonnes and tower 6.5 metres.
Prof Carey was the foundation Professor of Geology at the University of Tasmania and became internationally famous in the 1960s for his theories on “continental drift†and global tectonics. In the 1970s, he broadened his theories to suggest that tectonic plates move because the Earth is continually expanding.
Today the theory of an expanding Earth is still a minority view but Stephen Hurrell, an engineering designer at Britain’s Electricity Research Centre, has given it new currency.
Mr Hurrell has long been interested in the effects of scale on the engineering of structures – particularly when it comes to dinosaurs.
For example, other scientists have suggested that T.Rex would have been so large and heavy that he would have found it difficult to move. In fact some experts have calculated that T.Rex’s leg muscles would not have allowed the animal to move fast enough to run after prey. And had T.Rex slipped and fallen during a “chaseâ€Â, the huge weight could have caused a broken leg or massive internal injuries.
But those calculations of agility and injury are based on the assumption that dinosaurs lived with the same gravity Earth has today.
Using Prof Carey’s expanding Earth theory and his own knowledge of structures, Mr Hurrell believes a simpler explanation is that dinosaurs enjoyed life with less gravity.
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