How did dinosaurs grow so big?

Ronan Conway, Belfast

For many animals, there was an intrinsic selective pressure in favour of increasing body size. Since you must share your evolutionary niche with the other members of your species, being slightly larger than your peers helps you eat the higher leaves, catch bigger prey and defend a larger territory. Even more importantly, the larger you are, the safer you are from predators.

Submitted by Guest

Dinosaur Auction

Problem: you have a few million lying around in the bank doing nothing and a huge front room that needs an ornament guaranteed to impress your guests. Solution: buy a T.rex. If you happen to be at The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas on 3 October, you could do just that. ‘Samson’ is a 66-million-year-old, 12m-long female T.rex made up of 170 bones (making it one of the most complete specimens to have been discovered), and it could be yours. But if Samson’s not to your taste, there are nearly 50 other lots in this fantastic fossil auction.

Location

The Venetian Hotel
Las Vegas
Dates: 
Sat, 2009-10-03 (All day)
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