Timeline for How big could a land-dwelling arthropod get if it wasn’t limited by oxygen consumption?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 9, 2020 at 3:26 | vote | accept | Cobbington | ||
| Jun 15, 2019 at 21:42 | comment | added | Lupus | @JohnDvorak I don't see how its relevant to my answer, but its fascinating topic nonetheless. Humans would see the web, however their current design is optimized for insects. Think what kind of traps human use. Spiders basically have limitless supply of nanotech level threads. (We still can't reproduce most of them.) I'm not sure they could be easily cut, if a vest made from spider silk could stop bullets. Also, the traps are for trapping and immobilization. Spiders use poison to kill the helpless prey. | |
| Jun 15, 2019 at 21:19 | comment | added | John Dvorak | Most spiders don't have issue with being inactive most of the time. But they do have a problem - insects have terrible eyesight and will happily stumble into a wire in their path, trip and get eaten. Humans would be able to see any web built to trap them. Plus they'd be carrying shears at all times. | |
| Jun 15, 2019 at 20:52 | comment | added | Lupus | @StarfishPrime We maybe misunderstood each other. You say running hot is good, because its allows the animal to be active in colder climate. Right? I don't debate that part. My answer is aimed at the problem that if you ONLY increase size, because of cubic law, the heat generation increases way more than the cooling. You will have to account for that. Any big animal could be active in any climate, if they have sufficiently advanced and greatly adjustable cooling system... and food and so on, but I digress. | |
| Jun 15, 2019 at 20:38 | comment | added | Starfish Prime | Then just skip the hot part of the day? That's not a terrible strategy, and certainly it is one used by warm blooded creatures in particularly hot climates. You won't find a polar bear in a desert, but you will find it surviving much closer to the poles, which was one of the other options in my comment, as you may have noticed. | |
| Jun 15, 2019 at 20:30 | comment | added | Lupus | @StarfishPrime You have to be able to control it, though. If you can't scale and adjust your heat reduction properly, you will be able to be active ONLY earlier or later in the day, depending on the climate. African and Asian elephants have different ear sizes because of the difference in climate. Bigger ear needed to lose heat in a hotter climate. They can't change their ear size = their cooling system. Only move it, to increase its efficiency somewhat. You won't find a polar bear in the dessert. | |
| Jun 15, 2019 at 20:21 | comment | added | Starfish Prime | Running hot is a feature, not a bug (badum, tish). Just means you can be active earlier and later in the day, survive shorter seasons, live closer to the poles. | |
| Jun 15, 2019 at 20:02 | comment | added | Lupus | @JohnDvorak True, thank you. Edited out to exoskeleton. | |
| Jun 15, 2019 at 20:01 | history | edited | Lupus | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 5 characters in body
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| Jun 15, 2019 at 19:56 | comment | added | John Dvorak | Arthropods don't have bones... | |
| Jun 15, 2019 at 19:39 | history | answered | Lupus | CC BY-SA 4.0 |