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Day 13 of Dinovember 2020

Animals on islands tend to be smaller than their continental relatives. The reason for this is simple: islands have less stuff to eat, and smaller animals need less food. This is called insular dwarfism, and is pretty well known in the fossil record and living animals. This one is a prime example: brachiosaurids were usually huge animals, about 25 meter long, 12 meter high and 40 tons heavy. This one lived on small islands in what is now northern Germany, and had to downscale to survive. It's just a little over 6 meter long and 600 kg light, about the size of a large riding horse. Tiny for a Jurassic sauropod!

The downside to downscaling is that if a landbridge is formed with the mainland big predators will come to your little island and start snacking on you. Which is exactly how Europasaurus went extinct.

Description

Day 13 of Dinovember 2020

Animals on islands tend to be smaller than their continental relatives. The reason for this is simple: islands have less stuff to eat, and smaller animals need less food. This is called insular dwarfism, and is pretty well known in the fossil record and living animals. This one is a prime example: brachiosaurids were usually huge animals, about 25 meter long, 12 meter high and 40 tons heavy. This one lived on small islands in what is now northern Germany, and had to downscale to survive. It's just a little over 6 meter long and 600 kg light, about the size of a large riding horse. Tiny for a Jurassic sauropod!

The downside to downscaling is that if a landbridge is formed with the mainland big predators will come to your little island and start snacking on you. Which is exactly how Europasaurus went extinct.