The Solution to the Dinosaur Paradox

Year after year we watch science fiction movies showing creatures that are the wrong size. We may wonder what is wrong with this picture; what, if anything, limits the size of animals. But since Galileo’s Square-Cube Law was not included in our elementary science education most people fail to recognize how size matters.

In 1638 Galileo explained what is now called the Square-Cube Law in his last major scientific book titled Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences. The Square-Cube Law reveals why the common B-rated science fiction movies theme of showing people, gorillas, or insects as being extremely large or small is not physically possible. The Square-Cube Law is an extremely fundamental scientific concept critical to understanding physics, biology, aerodynamics, nanotechnology and numerous other science disciplines. But in addition to these positive attributes, Galileo's Square-Cube Law reveals what is wrong with the paleontologists’ claim that there is nothing odd about dinosaurs and pterosaurs growing so large.

Over the years the incongruities showing why dinosaurs and pterosaurs should not be so large have become increasingly more apparent. For the large dinosaurs there are the incongruities of 1) insufficient bone strength, 2) insufficient muscle strength, and for the taller dinosaurs 3) the problem of unacceptable high blood pressure. For the pterosaurs there is the paradox that no cold-blooded reptile, not even the very smallest reptiles, can fly today and yet during the Mesozoic the cold-blooded pterosaurs grew to be the largest flying animals that ever existed.

Not until 1928 did J. B. S. Haldane show the insight to advance Galileo’s ideas by writing On being the Right Size. A generation later numerous other famous scientists followed up with arguments supporting Galileo’s Square-Cube Law. Physics professors Phillip Morrison, Michael Fowler, Benjamin Crowell; biologists Steven Jay Gould, Michael C. LaBarbera, Steven Vogel, Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, Chris Lavers, John Tyler Bonner; paleontologist Christopher McGowan; have all made a case for why size matters.

Yet Galileo’s Square-Cube Law is still being left out of formal elementary science education; even if elementary science teachers were aware of Galileo’s Square-Cube Law, who can blame them for not wanting to teach it? Children are intrigued by large dinosaurs; revealing the incongruity between Galileo’s Square-Cube Law and the large dinosaurs shatters a child’s confidence in science. Who would have confidence in the paleontologists who are denying the existence of the dinosaur paradox now that they have failed to solve the paradox? And the paleontologists are not the only scientists that are in denial; the paradox regarding large dinosaurs is just one of the more obvious scientific paradoxes that scientists are avoiding. These scientific paradoxes are a result of the science community failing to recognize a fundamental feature of the Earth’s evolution. But rather than bringing these problems out into the open the science community has been sweeping these problems under the rug. The inability of the science community to resolve these paradoxes compromises the ability of science educators to teach the fundamental science of Galileo’s Square-Cube Law, and thus the failure to solve the dinosaur paradox has had the awful effect of holding back the advancement of all the sciences for literally centuries.

Science is floundering as a result of the apparent incongruities and the eroding credibility resulting from these scientists denying the scientific paradoxes. Consequently, more than ever people are choosing irrational beliefs over science. Our technologically advance society is on the verge of collapse as people have become incapable of applying scientific methods to solve problems. In this crisis most of the current scientific leaders are failing to provide real leadership. This failure in leadership is a result of the science establishment’s culture that strongly discourages dissent from its graduate students and the practicing scientists who question the errors in science. Consequently many of the doctoral scientists today fail to make the right choice when they are torn between the evidence, mathematics, and objective reasoning or simply going along with the establishment in accepting irrational beliefs.

About five years ago I worked out the initial solution to the large dinosaur paradox. My solution, the Thick Atmosphere Solution, seemed unbelievable at first because it implied that there were numerous additional scientific paradoxes hidden away among the science disciplines. On further investigation I found that there were indeed additional scientific paradoxes spread among the science disciplines. One of the most important scientific discoveries of our time is the realization that the Earth’s atmosphere has gone through a dramatic transition from being extremely thick throughout most of its history to its present form of being relatively thin.

On this website I first clarify the existence of the numerous paradoxes regarding the Mesozoic era and then I give the core explanation of how the Thick Atmosphere Solution resolves these problems. Considerable work still remains in regards to creating more diagrams and finishing the final few chapters. Readers may send me an e-mail if they wish to be kept informed regarding the final release date of the book.

David Esker
College Physics Instructor / Science Researcher

1. Galileo’s Square-Cube Law: Galileo’s Square-Cube Law shows that it is impossible to proportionally scale an object either up or down and still keep all of the properties either the same or proportional. It is impossible to maintain proportionality of all attributes because the ratio of an object’s area to its volume decreases with the greater size of an object. This simple scientific concept has far reaching consequences that are extremely important to nearly every science discipline. This foundation chapter explains the Square-Cube Law and why most complex objects are limited in regards to what size they can be. In addition to explaining the Square-Cube Law some examples are given to show how the law is applied to understanding physics and biology; these are important elementary science lessons that were left out of our grade-school science classes.

2. The Dinosaur Paradox: Once we understand Galileo’s Square-Cube Law showing how size matters it becomes clear that the large dinosaurs and pterosaurs of the Mesozoic era present a scientific paradox. Four areas of scientific incongruities regarding these animals’ large size are identified: 1) insufficient muscle strength, 2) insufficient bone strength, 3) unacceptably high blood pressure within the tallest dinosaurs, and 4) the paradox of pterosaurs having grossly insufficient power to fly in atmospheric conditions similar to the present. This chapter clarifies the first three paradoxes concerning the dinosaurs while the following chapter clarifies the paradox of large flying pterosaurs.

3. The Science of Flight and the Paradox of Flying Pterosaurs: Over a hundred years ago the Wright brothers achieved mankind’s dream of flying. Yet to this day the vast majority of physical science educators and aviation industry experts can not give an accurate explanation of how a plane flies. The source of the confusion regarding the understanding of flight is that any theoretical explanation that successfully explains how an airplane or bird flies will fail miserably if it is used to explain how the large pterosaurs flew. To avoid the incongruity some paleontologists make preposterous claims of the pterosaurs being incredibly light. Yet when we understand the science of flight we recognize that the only real solution is to let go of our assumption that the Mesozoic’s global environment or atmosphere was similar to the present. This chapter first reveals the many basic aerodynamic concepts that were left out of our physical science education. Then it derives the Power for Flight Equations that conclusively show why it would be impossible for the large pterosaurs to fly in today’s atmospheric environment. By solving the paradox of flying pterosaurs we eliminate the confusion in understanding how planes fly.

4. The Search for a Rational Solution: Acknowledging the existence of these scientific paradoxes, a systematic investigation is conducted to find the solution. The first step is to determine a scaling factor between the size of the largest and tallest animals of today and the largest and tallest animals of the peak of dinosaur gigantism. The next step investigates how the Earth’s gravitational field could have been less during the Mesozoic so as to allow this gigantism. Each possible hypothesis is systematically investigated in regards to scientific principles and physical evidence. This pattern goes on until the presentation of the last possible hypothesis: that the Earth had an extremely thick atmosphere that provided a buoyancy force that reduced the effective weight of the dinosaurs. This proves to be the correct solution.

5. The Thick Atmosphere Solution: The Thick Atmosphere Solution’s ability to solve the dinosaur paradox qualifies it as being a strong hypothesis, but with additional evidence it can be shown that the Thick Atmosphere Solution is actually a new scientific theory. For a conceptual model to achieve the status of being a scientific theory there needs to be 1) multiple distinct evidence-supported arguments all leading to the same conclusion, and 2) the conceptual model must show itself to be invaluable in providing the ‘big picture’ that allows us to make sense of the numerous miscellaneous surrounding facts that were previously a mystery. Each of the remaining chapters presents an evidence-supported argument that leads to the conclusion that the Earth has had an extremely thick atmosphere throughout most of its existence. This chapter starts by addressing a few misconceptions regarding fluids that may have confused some people regarding animals living in a high pressure atmosphere. The chapter then finishes strong by showing how the Thick Atmosphere Solution solves the long-standing paleoclimatologist puzzle of how the Mesozoic era Earth had the same pleasant climate over its entire surface.

6. Biology Revolution: Sometimes we fail to notice unusual facts that should drive our scientific curiosity: besides the paradox of the dinosaurs being so large there is also the paradox of why dinosaurs have a distinctly different shape from the large terrestrial animals of today. This chapter emphasizes the application of physics and the Theory of Evolution for the understanding of biology. Specifically it points out how species evolve so as to fill available niches within their physical and biological environment. The reason dinosaurs had disproportionally larger rear legs and a powerful flexible tail is because these appendages best facilitated terrestrial animals attempting to move quickly through a thick fluid that is about 2/3’s of the density of the animal.

7. Hell, Heaven and Earth – The Earth’s Internal Heat: For the Thick Atmosphere Solution to be a complete theory there needs to an explanation and supporting evidence showing how this extremely thick atmosphere came into existence and why the present atmosphere is considerably thinner. This requires the development of a supporting theory explaining the source of the fluids that now surrounds the Earth: a theory on the origin of the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere. The fact that these fluids came from the interior of the Earth will become clear in later chapters but for now the focus is on how the interior heat is generated so as to drive these fluids to the surface. The quantity of exhausted volcanic gasses that later evolves into being the atmosphere is largely determined by how much heat is generated inside the Earth. This chapter, the first of the three chapter series, investigates hypotheses regarding the source of the Earth’s interior heat. The investigation leads to the hypothesis that tidal forces are the source of the Earth’s internal heat.

8. Hell, Heaven and Earth – Our Solar System: Our understanding of how our solar system evolved is advanced considerably when we focus more on physics principles so as to explain the development of the planets, moons and other heavenly bodies. By combining our understanding of how tidal forces generate heat, thermal properties involving size, and other physics principles a set of guiding principles are developed that successfully explain the thickness of each terrestrial planet’s atmosphere. In this model the terrestrial planet that is the largest and is rotating within the greatest gravitational gradient produces the thickest atmosphere; this planet is Earth.

9. Hell, Heaven and Earth - The Blue Planet: Initially the chemical compositions of the atmosphere of Venus, Earth, and Mars were for all practical purposes identical: about 96% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, and trace amounts of other gases. But then the Earth’s atmosphere went through further developments due to the presence of liquid water on its surface. Water, as the universal solvent, facilitated the evolution of life that produced oxygen while removing the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Today there are huge deposits and even entire mountain ranges made out of carbonated rock such as limestone and dolomite. The main ingredient of this rock is the carbon dioxide that once filled the atmosphere. The removal of the carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere greatly reduced its thickness and made nitrogen the leading constitute, so that the Earth’s atmosphere is now 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% argon along with a few other trace gases.

10. Rocks and Fossils: Over the last couple of hundred of years our understanding of the Earth has advanced considerable as a result of the hard work of numerous dedicated geologists; yet we are still a long ways from having a complete picture of how the Earth evolved. The Thick Atmosphere Solution provides an important advancement in understanding much of the gathered geological evidence. The global paleoclimate, glaciations, sea level changes and other physical events of the last half a billion years can now be placed in their proper context based on whether it was a thick or a thin atmosphere environment.

11. Dinosaurs and Dragonflies: The biological changes that occurred through time are even more interesting than the physical changes. Combining the geological record of mass extinctions, knowledge of when the atmosphere was thick or thin, and applying our understanding of how species evolve produces remarkable insight regarding the major biological events that occurred on this Earth.

12. Spaceship Earth: In the process of greatly increasing our understanding of how the Earth evolved we gain a greater respect for our home. Hopefully mankind will become more thoughtful in considering how our actions affect the health of our planet. Just as centuries ago Galileo gave us a new perspective of the heavens, the Thick Atmosphere Solution forces us to reconsider our beliefs regarding life, who we are, and what we aspire to be.