Mankind versus Pterosaurs

... Which has the same effect in the pterosaurs, resulting in them getting punched out anyway...

No they didnt mutate.

Cant we just have fun with this?

The fact of the matter is that you can't ignore the environment and its impact on the organism that we're speculating on being still around. If the environment now remains the same as the Mesozoic Era humans would develop so differently that there's no point in speculating, and if these animals are still around with the environment so drastically changed they would also be different.

Also, YF is that way.

Yes, usually we cant. But this is like one of those scientific models where they go "Lets just see what would happen if we did this and didnt change other stuff even though it should"

If that's the case the lower oxygen content will mean that the pterosaurs won't fly as well, and they can't breathe as well because their respiratory system is not able to cope, and so they are far less energetic than they are used to and far less dangerous.

Or if we're using the oxygen level in the Mesozoic Era we'll be far more energetic and smarter due to our far more efficient respiratory system and thus the pterosaurs will still be far less dangerous.

edited 30th Apr '12 8:26:48 PM by IraTheSquire

Your missing the point of what I just said.

Fine. They use oxygen more efficiently than us so that they dont need more and the rest of the ecosystem is unchanged except for having another top predator that can compete with Humans.

edited 30th Apr '12 8:28:19 PM by Joesolo

You might as well as change the pterosaurs so that they have no wings and can't fly. And have them breathe fire and crap nukes. Having a less effective respiratory system than we do is part of what they were.

edited 30th Apr '12 8:31:48 PM by IraTheSquire

Humans would endure. We have a natural knack for preojectile weaponry. People can even instinctively pick up the best rock out of a pile of rocks that they can throw with the most effeciency, distance, and impact. We started with spears and rocks then we moved to the Atlatl.

Having to deal with flying enemies/food/predators/prey more frequently may have more likely pushed humans to develop projectile weapons more quickly or in different ways. May have also forced a change in how we hunted and moved about.

If you can crap nukes, not flying is a VERY bad idea...

We might have better night vision because we would need to go our a night more, since during the day the Pteros would be able to see better and ride thermals, they'd stay grounded at night.

Guys, our ancestors survived fast hyenas that would bring you nightmares, various species of leopard (one more massive than you'd think) who rather liked the taste of long pork, some giant crockodilians and the very rare remaining bear-dog for any hypothetical hominid that may have made it to Asia. Plus, when we hit the Americas, terror birds, though rare due to environmental change, were more than likely still doing their thing. But, not for very long. Go us!

Death from the sky? Bet they would have coped, thanks.

edited 30th Apr '12 10:10:52 PM by Euodiachloris

Maybe so, but that's not any more ridiculous than you trying to change the anatomy of the pterosaurs just so that they can be the "terror of the skies".

edited 30th Apr '12 10:07:37 PM by IraTheSquire

OK — let's go with a remote relative, then. Extinct 6 million years ago, but what if this baby had actually managed to evolve a bit, rather than die out? Tada! Argentavis — the Thunderbird lived, folks. And, was bloody scary. But, we'd still have managed to kill it off, had it managed to survive. Betcha.

Less of a stretch?

You guys, the oxygen levels were actually LOWER in the Cretaceous. The reason giant pterosaurs were more common than giant birds is because pterosaurs had an unique launching style. While birds waste a lot of energy running, pterosaurs just jumped into the air.

"We don't even know if Pterosaurs would be overly aggressive. Their bodies were sort of fragile, so I doubt that there'd be selection in their populations for an unconditional hunting instinct against large prey."

The idea that hollow bones =/= fragile is false. Bird bones are actually HARDER than mammal bones.

You sure about that?

edited 1st May '12 2:18:26 AM by IraTheSquire

Plus being delicate dosn't mean they wouldn't be aggresive. They could just be somewhat of a Fragile Speedster (bump the attack up a little though)

Your links are well, kind of old.

Harder doesn't necessarily mean stronger. Thickness and density play a huge role in that, it's why I can break the bone of a bird of prey effortlessly, but I'd be hard pressed to snap a human femur.

The links are kind of out-dated, but the first does point out something. Oxygen levels were higher in the Jurassic and early Cretaceous, but fell down by the late Cretaceous. Meanwhile, truly gigantic pterosaurs only existed in the Late Cretaceous.

Well, a bird of prey has proportionally much smaller bones. A better comparation is between an ostrich's and a horse's bones. The horse's bones are dense, but the ostrich has an internal honeycomb structure that makes the bone really hard to break.

Azhdarchids - the type of pterosaurs mentioned there - had bone walls of just a few milimeters, but theropod teeth associated with their carcasses are pretty much broken from the impact of the bite.

edited 1st May '12 9:53:51 AM by Gannetwhale

Old doesn't mean invalid unless new studies have overturned them. The Laws of thermodynamics are hundreds of years old, and they are yet still valid since nothing has contradicted them. I was hoping for some new evidence that would overturn my links, since those are ones I find at the drop of a hat.

Question, as far as I know pterosaurs have no diaphragm, so how efficient would their respiratory system by compared to ours?

They were like modern birds, having air sacs extending all over the body. On other words, they could breath much more efficiently.

Besides, just like modern swans and other long necked birds, it has been speculated pterosaurs made use of a lot of anaerobic respiration in regards to their muscles.

The best thing about this thread is that when I clicked on it just now, it was right below the "Homosexuality vs. Religion" thread. It looks like some kind of hilarious non-sequitor fight leaderboard, or a list of important court decisions.

• Homosexuality vs. Religion
• Mankind vs. Pterosaurs
• Paper vs. Plastic
• Hammer to the Trachea vs. Chocolate Lava Cake
• Sid Vicious vs. The United Nations
• Wisconsin vs. Yoder

If you pick leaderboard, the brackets would be awesome as fighters moved on.

It is kinda wild

PTEROSAURS VS RELIGION IN THE SEMI FINALS!

Raptor Jesus wins.

No he doesn't. Champsosaurus Buddha destroys all.