The Long Necks of Dinosaurs

When Earth was the size of Mars, gravity on our planet was not half of what it is today. It was much less than that. It was closer to the 38% value that we have measured on the surface of Mars. It may even have been lower than that.

The reason we can say this with confidence is that gravity cannot have been a big issue as far as the dinosaurs were concerned. Their long necks prove this quite decisively.

Had gravity been half that of what we have today, then the long necks of the dinosaurs would still have been a problem. The shape of dinosaurs would have resembled that of Elephants rather than a cross between a swan and a giraffe.

There is a good reason the African Elephant is shaped like a box. It is an animal under tremendous gravitational stress. Its shape is as compact as it is because of the force of gravity. The elephant is even equipped with a trunk so that it does not need to bend down to the grass below or stretch up to the foliage above to feed itself.

The long necked dinosaurs didn't seem to have any trouble with gravity. A long fleshy tail and a swan-like neck is a far cry from the Elephant's wimpy little tail and box-like shape.

By Tom Parker - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link