# Dinosaurs are so big ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 14, 2010, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-are-so-big/553707 "2010-09-14T11:20:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mahmood48142](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@mahmood48142](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mahmood48142)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-are-so-big/553707/1 "2010-09-14T11:20:52Z")
Is it due to the moon. As moon is constantly going backward. So may be it is nearer at the time of dinosaurs and its gravity was effecting them. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-are-so-big/553707/2 "2010-09-14T11:32:58Z")
To the extent this question can be parsed, the answer is no. Definitely no. Regardless of where the moon is or was, it did not make the dinosaurs bigger. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-are-so-big/553707/3 "2010-09-14T11:43:56Z")
In what way is the moon going “backward”? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-are-so-big/553707/4 "2010-09-14T11:47:18Z")
I believe that [this](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/985/why-were-dinosaurs-so-big) is a link to the column in question. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-are-so-big/553707/5 "2010-09-14T12:23:24Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > In what way is the moon going “backward”? If I understand the OP correctly he means “moving farther away from the Earth”. In other words, the premise being put forward is that the moon was closer to the Earth in the dinosaur days and the stronger gravitational pull allowed animals to grow to larger sizes than they can today. Just offhand I’m guessing that even if biology worked that way, having the moon close enough to exert that kind of influence would also result in some fairly hefty cataclysms on Earth. ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-are-so-big/553707/6 "2010-09-14T12:32:11Z")
Often in popular culture, the larger species of dinosaur are depicted, which encourages the imagining of a landscape with giant creatures all over the place. But were the large species all extant at the same time? Or was it pretty similar to now where you have a few large species and many smaller ones? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-are-so-big/553707/7 "2010-09-14T16:35:33Z")
> [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](#): > > Often in popular culture, the larger species of dinosaur are depicted, which encourages the imagining of a landscape with giant creatures all over the place. But were the large species all extant at the same time? Or was it pretty similar to now where you have a few large species and many smaller ones? Dinosaurs came in many sizes because they evolved to fill various ecological niches. Not only were the different sizes living at the same time, but the dinosaur young were extremely tiny at birth, hardly something you would expect to occur with an outside affect on their size. Mammals were present throughout the dinosaur era and never grew above tiny sizes. This is easily explained by niches, but not otherwise. When the dinosaurs disappeared and those niches were emptied, then mammals grew to larger sizes. By then the moon was much farther away. Of course, the moon was even nearer before the dinosaurs, yet there were no animals of equivalent size then. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-are-so-big/553707/8 "2010-09-14T17:34:55Z")
One might add that the pre-human age of mammals also produced some pretty darn big critters. The evidence rather suggests that humans and large animals don’t get along very well together. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-are-so-big/553707/9 "2010-09-17T15:40:41Z")
Not the _entire_ dinosaur. A good moon only makes the BUTT look bigger. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-are-so-big/553707/10 "2010-09-17T15:41:47Z")
The moon was going backwards in time? ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-are-so-big/553707/11 "2010-09-17T16:04:10Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Not the _entire_ dinosaur. A good moon only makes the BUTT look bigger. I can just imagine the conversation in the raptor cave: Her: “Honey, does this new mammal skin make my butt look big?” Him: “Uhhhhhhhhhhh…no, sweetie…it’s the moon doing it…yeah, the moon.” Her: “GGGGRRRARAAAAWWWWRRRRRRRRRR!!”