(March 1, 2012 at 1:29 pm)Rhythm Wrote: Higher levels of oxygen in the atmosphere translated to higher levels of oxygen in the bloodstream (thus lessening the difficulty in getting oxygen to large structures allowing for bigger and bigger creatures).
Another fun one, high concentrations of gasses like methane also made thunderstorms massive pyrotechnic displays. Lightning could literally set the air on fire.
Hmmm, but the mesozoic age when dinosaurs flurished is characterized by dramatically lower atmospheric oxygen levels, and higher carbon dioxide levels than what we see now.
If fact, dinosaurs had bird like throughflow respiratory systems that were much more efficient in extract oxygen and getting rid of CO2 than mammalian bellow lungs. Many paleotologists think it was dinosaurs' superior ability to function in a low oxygen environment that allowed them to displace primitive mammals that had been dominant before.
