Pterosaurs (Updated)

Because pterosaurs were so much larger than today's flying animals, one must conclude that our atmosphere was much denser then. And  how could this be? One explanation is that our atmosphere is getting thinner. But the opposite seems true ... see Science Magazine Article.

Thus, our atmosphere then must have been infused with many more carbon dioxide and other complex (heavier) molecules such as methane and water vapor.

Therefore, if life flourished then, we must have far more latitude for changes to our current atmospheric mix than climate scientists, like Al Gore, give us credit for.

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The above was written to try to explain why flying animals were so much bigger hundreds of millions of years ago. I concluded the the density of our atmosphere was much greater back then ... which helped to support more weight. The case I made was rather strained but I am not dismissing it here. But, upon further research and thought, it might (also) be that gravity on our Earth was so much weaker back then ... allowing for easier flight ... see: More on Gravity. Could be both, but I am now more persuaded by less gravity.

I also have some further thoughts on gravity ... starting with the question: what happens to its gravity when matter is destroyed? Clearly, nuclear weapons destroy matter, albeit a small amount turned into enormous amounts of energy (E = MC2). However, when celestial events occur, such as the merging of two black holes, enormous amounts of matter is destroyed. Such events, it has been recently discovered, send out “gravitational waves.” Although it has not yet been proven that gravitational waves carry away this orphaned gravity (see: Wikipedia Entry) ... I will so speculate.

These gravitational waves, if they distributed this orphaned gravity throughout the universe, would likely do so uniformly ... which seems a requirement for not upsetting the current celestial relationships (as I have previously been concerned with). Also, of course, even though this gravitational wave might possibly distribute an enormous amount of its orphaned gravity throughout the universe, the share that the Earth might receive would be very, very small.

But again, millions of years of these gravitational waves striking the Earth might accumulate to a meaningful number ... or, there might have been one or more super gigantic celestial events that provided the Earth with a large enough dose to goose our gravity to the point where pterosaurs could no longer get airborne ... and dinosaurs to became extinct over a short time span.

My speculations here may or may not make scientific sense ... but they sure make common sense.