Giant evolution

So I have giants, but how?

With minimal handwaving( especially common handwaving ) why and how would a creature evolve into a giant ...what size were they again... 3 stories high I think, or 2 i don't remember.

Humanoids, but what from? Sentient and with a full civilization and all that jazz; there a race is what I'm saying.

edited 5th Sep '14 10:45:10 AM by Zoraxbrooks

"Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?" -Sun Tzu-

Humanoid giants on that scale...probably aren't going to happen, ever, thanks to the Square-Cube Law. Land animals on such a scale (the largest sauropods) started by first evolving into a form that could support elephant-level bulk (quadrupedal gait -the earliest sauropods were bipedal- solid, column-like legs, splayed feet, a bunch of other adaptations) and then scaled up from that as far as it would go.

Reality is for those who lack imagination.

Yeah, that requires magic, not matter what. That said, large size generally comes from a herbavore that is being hunted by large predators. Growing big is a defense.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

Growing big also has metabolic advantages if you are endothermic and have access to a reliable food source. The bigger you are, the less of your energy intake you need to use to keep your body temperature stable since, for once, the Square-Cube Law actually works in your favor there.

Reality is for those who lack imagination.

That probably doesnt apply to humanoid giants, though...

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

Oh, it would apply alright, the problem with humanoid giants is that they wouldn't be able to handle their own weight. If that wasn't an issue, they'd certainly get the benefits of better "fuel economy".

Reality is for those who lack imagination.

No point trying to add realism with those premises. You might as well focus on consistency rather then realism which is what you should be doing anyhow.

§◄►§

How humanoid do they have to be? The largest bear could become up to ~3.7m tall, the ape around 3m.

If you make them more bear/orangutan/gorilla-like they would scale a little better.

Neither can stand up on their hind legs for long.

Reality is for those who lack imagination.

That's kind of my point. If zoraxbrooks wants bigger giants with "minimal handwaving" he have to change something and do some compromises to minimize those handwavings.

Having the giants walk on all four 90% of the time would allow for bigger giants.

Making them Mergiants they could be even bigger.

edited 6th Sep '14 6:10:04 AM by m8e

Could it be explained by something different in their blood, skin or muscle tissue? Like bones filled with iron, or something along those lines? Maybe descendants from monkeys that evolved under the equivalent of Chernobyl, or something like that?

Suffer not the witch to live.

Short answer: No.

Long answer: *deep breath*

"Bones filled with iron" would be pretty damn hard to pull off for any carbon-based organism, because to produce metallic iron (as opposed to the iron compounds we use in our bodies) in significant quantities they'd have to do some pretty impressive chemistry. Never mind that it wouldn't really do much...you'd gain more extra weight than added stability, which is kinda counterproductive. In fact, just about any material imaginable that could take the strain while also not adding too much extra weight is extremely unlikely to appear naturally.

As for the chernobyl thing...radiation really doesn't work like that. Radiation speeds up the rate of mutation and can, in theory, send evolution off into a whole new direction (although the chance of a positive outcome is pretty damn small), but it can't produce something that isn't within the reach of natural evolution otherwise.

Reality is for those who lack imagination.

@m8e well I look at all the thoughts of realism to see what I'm going to use, they are a magic centric society, but they had to be a successful enough species to start that society in the first place and I don't want to rely on "it's magic"

I'll bookmark mergiants, it'd change the idea a bit, but could be interesting.

Now since the iron bones would more add weight then help, how about hollow iron bones or denser leg bone materials and lighter upper body bone materials? Are there any other body structures that could help.

I could do anything I want with them, the original idea was simply like a giant human, but if I find something else more interesting/ unique in a somewhat realistic way then that's more what I'm going for; because if I handwave all the things that everyone else handwaves, then it would be effectively the same thing, and I have time to make them how I want.

Could one get by the weight/density/ square/cube law by... Is there a way to make the giants less dense/heavy without a convenient phlebotinum?

This was more about what would push a species into evolving to such a size, like stuff like avian humanoids has some logic, simply getting really be seems kind of... Dumb I suppose...

"Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?" -Sun Tzu-

Well, what about something along the lines of sentient sauropods, then? At least one species ("Dreadnoughtus") is believed to have been around two stories tall at the shoulder, and more massive than an empty Boeing 737-900 at nearly 60 000kg. (You might want to add a third pair of limbs if you want them to be able to manipulate things.)

My Games & Writing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatherium

edited 7th Sep '14 9:46:55 PM by m8e