this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
1521 points (100.0% liked)

Science Memes

15750 readers
2811 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Was curious so I tried to find historical Oxygen levels by century (didn't find that). With the current oxygen level being around 20.9% and decreasing to effectively 17% around a mile in altitude, (say Denver) we adapt to 4% oxygen level without death. So if dinosaurs are similar in breathing to humans, I'd say with no scientific backing beyond just speculation, they should be fine.

[–] leftzero 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

if dinosaurs are similar in breathing to humans

Current living dinosaurs are much more efficient at extracting oxygen from air than practically anything else in the planet.

Birds've got a unidirectional respiratory system that ensures oxygenated air is constantly flowing through their lungs (unlike, for instance, us mammals, who must empty our lungs of spent air before we can fill them again), and a system of air sacs to keep the air constantly flowing.

While fossil records of the earliest dinosaurs show no evidence of air sacs, later ones do, suggesting that bird-like respiratory systems evolved multiple times in parallel in different branches.

Sauropods in particular might have had even more complex air sac systems than modern birds, which could explain how they managed to grow so large (i.e., they were full of air, and might have been even more efficient when it comes to breathing, though their long necks might have offset the balance in the opposite direction).

Dinosaurs would have been perfectly fine with current oxygen levels.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Didn't know that, thanks for the cool information. Although your long neck comment just makes me think of this now

[–] leftzero 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Bird skeletons (or simply plucked birds) are seriously disturbing.

It's incredible how much work feathers do when it comes to bird appearance.

Owls are cute and fluffy. Plucked owls are horrific alien nightmares from the outer dimensions.

Makes one wonder.

T-Borb

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

So now for the tough question, how many hours do I need to cook that bird in the oven for on Thanksgiving? Is it like a wake up at Tuesday ordeal? Haha