Evidence of Earth Previously Having a Much Thicker Atmosphere

When some people learn of the idea that the Earth had an atmosphere hundreds of times thicker than the present atmosphere their initial reaction is to immediately reject the idea as being preposterous. What evidence shows that this hypothesis is not only possible but actually quite reasonable?

There are a surprising number of scientific paradoxes that, when viewed as evidence, point to the conclusion that the Earth previously had a much thicker atmosphere. Like most scientific breakthroughs, the proposal that the Earth previously had a much thicker atmosphere is a simple idea that makes sense of a tremendous amount of evidence. There is no scientific reason why the Earth could not have had an extremely thick atmosphere and there is overwhelming evidence supporting the fact that it did. It is astonishing how much evidence was pushed to the side by scientists who lacked the reasoning skills and imagination to understand what it meant.

It would surprise most people to find out how many unsolved scientific paradoxes and unanswered fundamental questions there are related to the evolution of our Earth and solar system. How did the dinosaurs grow so large? How did the gigantic pterosaurs fly? Why is Earth the densest planet in the solar system? Why was there no ice at the Polar Regions during the age of the dinosaurs? And so on it goes. Most of these scientific paradoxes, and many others, have existed for several decades if not for hundreds of years. We need to recognize the fact that the scientists tasked with solving these problems are currently trapped within their own groupthink paradigms and are thus incapable of solving these scientific problems. It is long overdue that we open our minds to ideas that are ‘outside the box’.

The idea that the Earth had a much thicker atmosphere is that ‘outside the box’ thinking. There is no reason why the Earth could not have had an atmosphere much thicker than what it is today. Not only it is possible, the amount of evidence supporting this belief is overwhelming. An investigation into how a planet gains its atmosphere, holds on to its atmosphere, or loses its atmosphere along with a thorough study of the properties of fluids, the effect of high pressure fluid on biology, along with the geological evidence, all of this and much more, lead to the conclusion that previously the Earth had an extremely thick atmosphere.

The idea that previously the Earth’s atmosphere was hundreds of times thicker than what it is today is no more preposterous than believing that the continents move, or that mountains rise and fall, or that the Earth is round and billions of years old. Yet just like these amazing facts, and many others, seeing the truth about our reality often requires imagination, but not just any wild imagination: it has to be coupled with a solid understanding of science principles. The advancement of science also requires rational independent thinkers capable of examining evidence and accurately determining which scientific beliefs are supported by overwhelming evidence and which ones are not.

Evidence of Earth Having an Extremely Thick Atmosphere during the Mesozoic Era

  1. The buoyancy force of a thick atmosphere can reduce the effective weight of terrestrial animals and in doing so enables them to grow larger. The idea that the Mesozoic atmosphere was hundreds of times thicker than the present atmosphere is by far the most rational explanation for how the dinosaurs grew so large.
  2. The typical shape of the dinosaurs – the large rear legs and large muscular tail – indicates that they were in a fluid that was about two thirds to three fourth the body density of the dinosaurs.
  3. The flight equations show that the gigantic pterosaurs could not have flown unless the atmosphere was hundreds of times denser than its current density.
  4. The larger ancestral flying birds – typically mislabeled as feathered dinosaurs – were comparable in size to the gigantic pterosaurs and like the pterosaurs these birds could have only flown if the atmosphere was hundreds of times denser than its current density.
  5. The thick Mesozoic atmosphere solves the evolution puzzle of how the vertebrates evolved the ability to fly.
  6. The glaciation or lack of glaciation of the higher latitudes accurately matches up with the sizing of terrestrial vertebrates thus indicating when the Earth’s atmosphere was either thin or thick. During the Mesozoic era and the first half of the Cenozoic period there was no ice at the poles and the terrestrial animals were exceptionally large thus indicating that during this time the Earth’s atmosphere was extremely thick.

Explanation of the Evidence Supporting the Thick Atmosphere Theory

How do the large dinosaurs of the Mesozoic era support the belief that the Earth’s atmosphere was extremely thick during this time?

Before there can be a discussion of how a thick atmosphere solves the large dinosaurs paradox, we need first to clarify some concepts about size and what would limit the size of an animal. Remarkably many people, including many scientists, are unaware that size matters, even though it’s been over three and half centuries since Galileo explained the importance of size. Most students do not learn this important science concept because grade school science teachers are unaware of Galileo’s square cube law that explains how size matter. Furthermore, the few teachers that are aware of Galileo’s square cube law and begin teaching it are soon caught in the awkward position of trying to explain to their students that size is important while their students are asking how it was possible for the dinosaurs to grow so incredibly large. None of this confusion would exist if paleontologists had solved the problem of explaining how the dinosaurs grew so large.

Not only is the public confused over how size matters but so are the paleontologists. Dinosaurs were typically three or four times larger than present day terrestrial animals and so any serious attempt for explaining these large animals needs to be able to produce a three to four times reduction in the dinosaur’s effective weight. Yet after over two hundred years of failing to solve the problem of how the dinosaurs grew so large paleontologists have shifted their efforts to downplaying or dismissing the severity of the problem. Their misleading claims about the dinosaurs having superior bones and similar suggestions are nothing more than an inadequate minor tweaks that fail to address the numerous biomechanics problems associated with oversized animals. The failure of paleontologists to get serious about solving the large dinosaurs’ paradox is the reason why many scientists outside of paleontology have been offering their hypotheses in the hopes of solving this problem.

The weight of an animal depends on the surface gravity of the planet or moon that the animal is standing on. When the astronauts walked on the Moon they weighed much less than what they weighed on the Earth surface. Someday hopefully mankind will venture on to other moons and planets and when we do we will have to contend with the fact that the surface gravity on these bodies will likewise probably not be the same as what it is here on Earth. If humans were to settle on any of these planets or moons we would find that the humans that settled on the low gravity planets will grow larger while conversely the humans that settled on the high gravity planets will grow smaller. It is this kind of thinking that has led some people to wondering if in the past the Earth’s surface gravity could have somehow been dramatically different and if this could possibly explain how the dinosaurs grew so large.

For terrestrial Mesozoic animals to grow three to four times larger than present terrestrial animals the Earth’s surface gravity would need to be three to four times less than what it is now. The equation for surface gravity is g = G M / R2 where G is a constant, M is the mass of the planet, and R is its radius. While the equation implies that we could adjust either the mass or the radius to achieve a different surface gravity, in reality we are rather restricted in how we can change these variables because the density of a planet or moon must be between one and about 5.5 g /cm3. When all things are considered the result is that the larger and more massive planets have a higher surface gravity than the smaller planets or moons. The gravity equation shows that to achieve the required lower surface gravity the Mesozoic era Earth would have had to be roughly the same size and mass as either the Moon or Mars.

Before geologists realized that the continents were riding on plates, there were a few scientists who thought that the Earth might be expanding and that this would explain why the continents were moving. However, after the success of the Theory of Plate Tectonics nearly all scientists dismissed the expanding Earth hypothesis as a flawed idea. But some people continue to hold on to the expanding Earth hypothesis because they believe that it may have merit in explaining how the dinosaurs grew so large.

There are some serious problems with the idea that the Earth is dramatically expanding. First, what was the Earth supposedly doing for the first 4.5 billion years of its existence that it would suddenly expand to become many times larger in just the past 65 million years since the extinction of the dinosaurs? Far more troubling is that significant mass could not have come from outside the Earth and mass could not have just poof into existence inside the Earth, so how could the Earth grow to be several times more massive than before? Realizing that their hypothesis is impossible, some of the proponents of the expanding Earth idea are saying that Earth expanded without the addition of new mass. This would leave them with only the problems of explaining how it was previously so incredibly dense and what would cause it to suddenly have this explosive expansion. Once they figured these problems out, they would still be failing in their mission of explaining the large size of the dinosaurs. This is because they are moving the variables in the wrong direction. If we believe their story of the Earth’s dramatically increasing its radius, then the surface gravity would be decreasing instead of increasing, and this would give the wrong result of the present day terrestrial animals being larger than the dinosaurs.

While proposals of directly changing the gravitational field do not pan out, it is still possible to change the effective weight of animals, and the most common way of doing this is to submerge the animal in a fluid such as water. The reason whales can grow so large is because their weight is effectively zero for as long as they stay in the water. Nearly a century ago paleontologists ran with this idea by claiming the largest dinosaurs were supporting their weight by spending their time partially submerged in the water of rivers or lakes. But later the paleontologists withdrew this hypothesis because they felt that the bone structure of these dinosaurs’ feet was incorrect for a semi aquatic animal. However, more recently the biologist Brian Ford has reintroduced this idea with the only change being that he says that all dinosaurs were semi aquatic. While this hypothesis is wrong it is still not nearly as preposterous as most paleontologists would have the public believe. Some of the largest terrestrial animals – elephants, hippopotamus, crocodiles, and alligators – are either semi aquatic or at least show a great love for water. And for good reasons: water takes the stress off their legs while it cools their bodies down. Nevertheless, there are a few problems with Brian Ford’s hypothesis that the dinosaurs were semi aquatic.

Besides the already mention problem of incorrect bone structure there is the much more serious problem of how species evolve. Having no need for legs while constantly being in the water, many of Brian Ford’s semi aquatic dinosaurs would evolve towards being completely aquatic like the whales and dolphins and head back out to sea. And why would all of these dinosaurs stay in the water when there is delicious vegetation on the land just beyond their reach? The dinosaurs that are smaller than elephants would evolve onto the land to consume the vegetation and insects on the land, while the few large dinosaurs left behind - the sauropods – would soon die out due to starvation: how much edible vegetation can there be that grows on the land and still be within reach of a large animal supported by the water. At this point the remaining dinosaurs that evolved onto the land would hardly be any different in size and shape than the terrestrial animals that exist today.

The largest animals are whales and the reason whales can grow so large is because gravity is offset by the buoyancy of water thus giving them an effective weight of zero. Many of the sauropods – the largest dinosaurs – were as large as whales and yet we know that their effective weight could not have been zero since dinosaurs still required strong legs to support some of their weight. If we want to use buoyancy to explain how the dinosaurs grew so large and yet we want to also account for the dinosaurs having legs, then we would need a fluid that is about two thirds to three fourths the density of water. What could this fluid be?

Interesting enough, we are currently living in a fluid environment that effectively reduces our weight and yet still requires us to have legs to support our weight. The Earth’s atmosphere is actually a fluid and the buoyancy force of this fluid is reducing our weight although this reduction in weight is small indeed. To be really effective in reducing our weight, or the weight of any other terrestrial animal, air would have to be many times denser than what it is today.

The chemist Octave Levenspiel ran with this idea by proposing that the Mesozoic atmosphere was three to five times thicker than the present atmosphere. His proposal was a step in the right direction, but it is not nearly enough: to account for the dinosaurs being three to four times larger than present terrestrial animals the Mesozoic atmosphere would have had to be about six or seven hundred times thicker than what it is today.

Most people can not imagine how the Earth’ atmosphere could be hundreds of times thicker that what it is today, and that may be the reason why it was not until recently that no one thought of it. Making scientific discoveries often requires both the application of science principles and the application of imagination.

How could the dinosaurs and other Mesozoic era animals survive in such a thick atmosphere? Would the extreme pressure crush the animals?

Let’s answer that question with another question: how is it that the animals living at or near the near the bottom of the oceans are not crushed by the pressure? Let’s talk about fluids.

The thick Mesozoic atmosphere would apply a high absolute pressure on everything within the Earth’s lower atmosphere but just like now the animals of the Mesozoic era would not even notice this pressure. If the pressure is the same on each side of a barrier then there is no stress on the barrier; it is only when the pressure on one side is different from the other side that there is stress on the barrier. For example, if the pressure outside our body changes then our ears may hurt because the pressure on one side of our ear drums is different from the other. This can happen to our ears when we drive up or down a mountain or when we are flying we can sometimes sense the change in cabin pressure as an airplane ascends or descends. Scuba divers that rise too quickly to the surface have an even more painful experience because the change in pressure causes air bubbles to form in the blood and tissues. This damage to cells can even happen to whales and other animals if they change their depth in the water too quickly. To summarize, even with just a small change in pressure an animal may experience pain or possible biological damage, whereas animals that live in constant high pressure environments have no stress on their bodies and so they feel no pain or ill consequences.

How does the unique shape of dinosaurs support the belief that the Earth’s atmosphere was extremely thick during the Mesozoic era?

The thick atmosphere theory works with the Theory of Evolution in explaining the form of the dinosaurs. Form follows function is a common phrase in biology and what it means is that the unique shape of a species is an indicator of the living environment of the species and it also gives us insight into what the species are doing. For example, if we look at the form of an alligator we should notices its muscular tail and that tells us that the alligator is swimming through a thick fluid. Likewise its short legs tell us that it is also capable of climbing onto the land. This means that it has a lifestyle that includes sometimes being in the water while at other times it is on the land. What can the form of the dinosaurs tell us about what environment it was in and what it was doing?

Like kangaroos, nearly all dinosaurs have exceptionally strong rear legs and a strong tail. But unlike a kangaroo, dinosaurs did not have exceptionally long feet that would be suitable for hopping and therefore nobody is claiming that dinosaurs hopped. Also the tails of dinosaurs were different. Dinosaur tails are flexible so as to allow back and forth horizontal movement instead of vertical movement like that of a kangaroo or primate. Not only did a dinosaur’s tail move back and forth horizontally but some dinosaur species vertical ribs coming off their tail are similar to the tail of a fish. The most common reason for why an animal has a muscular tail is because they are using it to propel themselves through a fluid. For decades paleontologists have been wondering why they were not finding tracks of dinosaurs dragging their tails, when paleontologist should have been asking themselves how dinosaurs could have strong muscular tails if they are not swimming through a fluid.

dinosaur display

Besides having a strong muscular tail the most common feature of a dinosaur is that it rear legs are usually much larger than it fore legs. This is yet another strong indicator that these animals were living in a dense fluid.

What would it be like to try to move as quickly as possible through a fluid that is about two thirds the density of water? Imagine that you are enjoying yourself at a beach and currently standing in chest high ocean water when suddenly you spot a large great white shark coming straight at you. The continuation of your life now depends on how quickly you can get out of the water. Do you run or swim, or if you could would you try to do both? While the water gives you the option of swimming it also works against you since this thick fluid impedes your forward motion. Furthermore if you try to run you must first lean forward nearly forty five degrees just so that your feet can get some traction, and then once you are running the water is impeding your forward motion so much that you will not run even half as fast as when you are finally up on the beach.

Likewise, the struggle was similar for the dinosaurs trying to move as fast as possible through the thick Mesozoic atmosphere. As their muscular tail and strong rear legs propelled their body forward the resistance from the dense atmosphere would lift the front part of their body off the ground. Consequently, during a chase between predator and prey, the forward legs of the herbivore and the arms of the carnivore would rarely if ever touch the ground. The thick Mesozoic atmosphere explains why carnivores like T-rex had such small arms: if the T-rex had large arms then this would create greater air resistance that would slow the T-rex down and this would hurt T-rex’s ability to catch its prey.

Paleontologists have discovered that most dinosaurs had muscles attaching the back side of each of the upper rear legs to each side of the tail bone, thus indicating the movement of these rear legs was synchronized with the back and forth sideways movement of the tail. Hence, each time a dinosaur planted one of its rear legs on the ground the muscle attached to the rear of that leg would use it as an anchor to pull the tail towards it. So as the dinosaurs ran - right, left, right, left – its tail was also being pulled back and forth, right, left, right, left. This was not wasted motion since the tail was pushing off the thick Mesozoic atmosphere so as to move the dinosaur forward. For many dinosaurs species the thrust produced by the swimming motion of their tail probably exceeded the thrust produced by their rear legs running across the ground.

How the incredibly large flying pterosaurs are evidence of the Earth having an extremely thick atmosphere during the Mesozoic era?

The largest flying pterosaurs of the Mesozoic era were four or five times larger that the largest flying birds of our present times. Paleontologists try to dismiss this scientific paradox by saying that biologically pterosaurs are not the same as birds and so comparisons should not be made between these animals. This explanation is incredibly misleading since it implies that in regards to flying the larger pterosaurs must have been superior to birds when in fact the opposite is true. Birds have evolved numerous features that make them superior flyers: a high structure to weight ratio and an aerodynamic shape, a highly efficient one way respiratory system, an adjusted center of mass, and an elevated temperature that is maintained through superior body insulation. In contrast, the pterosaurs were not so aerodynamic and they most likely had an exceptionally low metabolism. Pterosaurs were flying reptiles, and the metabolism of reptiles is so low that reptiles cannot even fly in our present atmosphere.

Flying animals requires a high metabolism because flying requires power which is why hot blooded birds are better flyers than warm blooded flying mammals, while in turn bats are vastly superior flyers to any want-to-be cold blooded flying reptile. The only way that a reptile could have flown, and certainly the only way a reptile could have grown to being the largest flyer of all time, is if it was much easier to fly during the Mesozoic era.

Flying vertebrates are not different from flying airplanes in that they need to have the right combination of enough power, large enough wings, and low enough weight in order to get off the ground. In addition they need to have an aerodynamic shape, to be statically balanced, and to have an ability to control their flight by adjusting their wings and tail. In addition to fulfilling all of these requirements, the air needs to be dense enough so that either the flying animals or airplane can generate enough lift to counteract their weight.

While pterosaurs would not be capable of flying in today’s atmosphere, the flight equations show that they could fly if the Earth’s atmosphere was hundreds of times denser than what it is today. The flight equations also show that the much thicker atmosphere would greatly reduce the pterosaur’s takeoff and landing speed thus explaining how such a large animal could achieve these tasks.

How are the flying birds of the Mesozoic era evidence of the Earth having an extremely thick atmosphere during this time?

Most of the Mesozoic ancestral birds that the paleontologists have identified as birds are the ones that are small enough that it is possible for the paleontologists to believe that they could have flown in today’s atmosphere. But in addition to these smaller birds there are fossils of several other similar wing animals that are either larger or much larger than the flying birds of today. Apparently paleontologists have difficulty imagining how these large ancestral birds flew, and so even though the fossils show that these animals had feathers like a bird, wings like a bird, and claws like a bird, according to paleontologists these are not flying birds, these were feathered dinosaurs. These paleontologists give credence to the proverb “there are none so blind as those who refuse to see.”

It is interesting that while paleontologists accept the fact that gigantic pterosaurs were capable of flight, these same paleontologists balk at the idea that comparable sized birds would have also been flyers. The pterosaurs could not have flown unless the Mesozoic atmosphere was hundreds of times thicker than the Earth’s present atmosphere, so how is it that this thick atmosphere was not also available for the birds? Contrary to what the paleontologists claim, these ‘feathered dinosaurs’ become capable flying birds once we insert the higher air density values into the flight equations.

Ancestral Bird Fossil Ancestral Bird Drawing

How does the evolution of these ancestral birds give evidence of the Earth having an extremely thick atmosphere during Mesozoic era?

One of the key concepts of the Theory of Evolution is that the evolution of new features takes place over many generations through a series of small steps, and throughout all of these steps there must be at least some small benefit that is derived from these evolving features. Fulfilling this criterion of the Theory of Evolution has been an annoying problem for the scientists who try to explain how vertebrates evolved the ability to fly. If someone makes the assumption that the Mesozoic atmosphere was just as dense as what it is today then a partially formed wing would be a liability rather than an asset. In fact, the people that want to reject the Theory of Evolution have used this argument to attack it by saying “What good are half formed wings?”

This criticism is actually correct except that the fault is not with the Theory of Evolution but rather the fault is with the assumption that the Mesozoic atmosphere was similar to the present. While partially formed wings are of no use in a thin atmosphere this is not true in an extremely thick atmosphere. In an atmosphere that is hundreds of time thicker, the wings of flying animals would not need to be so large and the minimum requirements for power would be about a hundred times less. This would make it much easier for terrestrial animals to evolve the ability to fly. To make an analogy, evolving the ability to fly in a thin atmosphere would be like trying to jump across a mile wide gorge, while evolving the ability to fly in an extremely thick atmosphere is like stepping across a tiny crack.

How does the uniformity of the Earth’s global climate during the Mesozoic era give evidence of the Earth having an extremely thick atmosphere during this time?

Throughout all of human history there has been ice covering the northern and southern Polar Regions and so most people would probable assume that it has always been this way, and most people would be wrong. Throughout all of the Mesozoic era there was no ice at the Polar Regions. Furthermore there are more than enough warm climate planet and animal fossils found near or within the Polar Regions to conclude that throughout the Mesozoic era the climate of the Polar Regions was quite mild. Meanwhile the Mesozoic era fossils coming from the lower latitudes show that the temperature at the lower latitudes was either similar to what it is today or at most only slightly warmer. Thus, the global climate of the Earth during the Mesozoic era was much more uniform that what it is today. Not only was there far less variation in temperature regardless of latitude there was also far less variation in temperature regardless of altitude. Beside there not being ice or snow at the Polar Regions there was no ice or snow at the tops of mountains either. Scientists have struggled to explain the global climate uniformity of the Mesozoic era. Neither the movement of the continents or changes in the ocean currents is enough to account for the absence of ice at the Polar Regions.

For our current climate, the main reason why there is a large difference in temperature between the lower and higher latitudes is because lower latitudes receive much more of the Sun’s solar warmth, and then the Earth’s relatively thin atmosphere is not so effective at transferring that warmth to the upper latitudes. In contrast to the present conditions, if the atmosphere was much thicker then a strong single convection cell would likely form in each hemisphere and this convection cell would be highly efficient in transferring heat from the lower latitudes to the higher latitudes.

Venus has a thick atmosphere and along with its thick atmosphere it has a single atmospheric convection cell in each hemisphere. If the Earth’s atmosphere was much thicker, even several times thicker than Venus’s atmosphere then it too would possible form a single atmospheric convection cell pattern that would be highly effective in transferring heat from the lower latitudes to the higher latitudes. Evidence supporting this idea comes from the difference between the rains patterns that exist today compared to what existed during the Mesozoic era.

Currently there are three atmospheric convection cells in both the northern and southern hemispheres. The north and south convection cells nearest to the equator are known as the Hadley cell. The air begins its journey near the equator where it rises to a higher altitude while it drops its moisture: it rains. At the higher altitude the air then travels either thirty degrees north or south dropping altitude and reversing direction. Because it gave up its moisture earlier this air is now exceptionally dry as it begins its journey back to the equator. Because of this dry air most of the Earth’s largest deserts are between twenty and thirty five degrees latitude. These dryer bands that circle the Earth are the more noticeable evidence of its three cell atmospheric convection pattern.

Since deserts do not support as much life, one might initially think that these desert locations would not be good locations to find dinosaur fossils but actually the opposite is true. Not only do paleontologists find most dinosaur fossils in dry locations, the fossils that are found there most often indicate that these locations were not deserts when the dinosaurs were alive. A thick atmosphere with a single convection cell in each hemisphere is possibly the best explanation for why it was that during the Mesozoic the climate was nearly the same all over the Earth.

So far the focus has been on presenting evidence supporting the hypothesis that the Earth’s atmosphere was extremely thick during the Mesozoic era, but what about the time before the Mesozoic era and the time between the end of the Mesozoic era and the present, what evidence is there that the atmosphere was either thick or thin during these periods? Are these different sets of evidence in sync with each other in verifying whether the Earth’s atmosphere was either thick, thin, or in transition?

The Mesozoic era ended with the K-T extinction that killed the last remaining dinosaurs. After the extinction, similar to the previous extinction, there was not much life for millions of years. But once life recovered terrestrial animals once again grew to gigantic size. The terrestrial mammals that existed during the first half of the Cenozoic era were not as large as the dinosaurs but still they were about twice as large as present day terrestrial mammals. Then, from this time on, terrestrial vertebrates have generally shrunk in size as they transitioned to the size of present day vertebrates. While the size of terrestrial animals was diminishing the amount of glaciation at the Polar Regions was growing. Throughout the later half of the Cenozoic era several Ice Ages have come and gone but the overall trend throughout this era is towards greater amounts of ice in the higher latitudes. The overall trend of the Cenozoic era indicates that there was a general transition from a thick to a thin atmosphere throughout this period.

There was also glaciation during the late Carboniferous and Permian periods that came just before the Mesozoic era. During the late Carboniferous period vertebrates were still just beginning to evolve out onto the land while Permian period is known as the age of amphibians that also included some recently evolved reptiles. While many of these reptiles were fairly large and some of the amphibians grew to be much larger than the amphibians that we see today, it is important to note that none of these terrestrial vertebrates grew to be larger than the largest animals that we see today. The size of these animals and the amount of glaciation indicates that the climate of the late Carboniferous period and the Permian period was about the same as it is today. In other words, just like the present time, during these periods the atmosphere was relatively thin.

What about the gigantic insects of the late Carboniferous period, are these animals an indication that the atmosphere was thick during this time?

The large insects of the late Carboniferous period tend to confuse people. These invertebrates did not grow larger because the physical environment was different but rather they grew larger because the biological environment was different. Invertebrates were crawling on the land for many millions of years before vertebrates evolved out of the water and even when vertebrates did reach the land they still fell short of being able to fly. The difference in the structure invertebrates and vertebrates is different in such a way that this determines which one is best at different sizes. While the invertebrate frame works well for smaller animals the vertebrates structure is usually superior for any animal larger than a mouse. Hence when these two groups meet it is generally the vertebrates that eats the invertebrate and not vise versa, and in fact for invertebrates a large size can be a huge disadvantages since large invertebrates cannot move as fast and they have more difficulty in hiding. The reason why insects were able to grow so large during the Carboniferous and Permian periods is because they were not being eaten by the vertebrates until the amphibians and then the reptiles crawled out onto the land. Furthermore, while flying vertebrates can be especially good at consuming invertebrates, there were no flying vertebrates throughout the Carboniferous and Permian periods, and so giant dragonflies took on the role of being the predators of the sky.

There is overwhelming evidence indicating that during the Mesozoic era the atmosphere was hundreds of times thicker that what it is now, so why are so many scientists doing everything they can to censor and denounce this idea?

The scientists who have access to the latest cutting edge technology can often be the first to make a discovery and so they are fortunate in that they can usually give their interpretation of their observations without upsetting anyone. But beyond these first discoverers, it is nearly impossible for someone to give a new interpretation of evidence without provoking the anger of other scientists who have already given their interpretation of the evidence. For centuries, scientists have formulated ideas regarding the Earth and that means there are now an abundance of extremely opinionated people. These people failed to consider the possibility of the Earth having a thicker atmosphere and so they missed this one revelation that solves numerous scientific paradoxes regarding Earth and the evolution of life on this planet. Why would these people be happy?

Ambitious people will always favor their own interest instead of doing what is best for science, and this is a problem that has plagued science since the beginning of science. The stronger the evidence is in supporting the new scientific idea, the greater the threat to the status of these senior science authorities, and so these people will use all of their capacity to either censor or viciously attack the perceived threat to their authority. This is the reason why it often takes decades or even centuries before most revolutionary ideas are finally accepted.

David Esker
M.S. Physics
College Physics Instructor
Resolution of the Large Dinosaur Paradox
Science of Flight Equations
Theory of Planetary Evolution
Author of DinosaurTheory