Post by Super Communist on Jan 9, 2012 21:21:24 GMT -5
Andrewsarchus is known only from an enormous skull (32.8 in/83 cm long and 22 in/56 cm wide)[2] and pieces of bone. If Andrewsarchus was proportioned in the same manner as Mesonyx obtusidens, it had a length from the snout to the back of the pelvis of about 11 feet (3.4 m) and a height from the ground to the shoulder or middle of the back of about 6 feet (1.8 m). Thus in round numbers it is possible that it may have been three times the size of Synoplotherium (Dromocyon) vorax or of Mesonyx obtusidens and possibly the largest land-dwelling carnivorous mammal known.[3] Its chief rival for this title is the South American short-faced bear Arctotherium, which is estimated to have weighed up to 1700 kg (3700 lb). The cranium is about twice the length of that of a modern Alaskan brown bear (Ursus arctos middendorffi), but with a lower length-to-width ratio, and about triple the length of an American wolf's (Canis occidentalis). With modern brown bears or polar bears weighing between 450 kg (~1000 lb) and 675 kg (~1500 lb) and only an extreme specimen of a wolf weighs up to 77 kg (170 lb), this plausibly puts Andrewsarchus in the 1000 kg (2200 lb) size range. This weight appears close to the practical size limit of carnivorous land mammals, possibly relating to available food as well as metabolic requirements.
V.S.
The African buffalo is a very robust species. Its shoulder height can range from 1 to 1.7 m (3.3 to 5.6 ft) and its head-and-body length can range from 1.7 to 3.4 m (5.6 to 11 ft). The tail can range from 70 to 110 cm (28 to 43 in) long. Savannah type buffaloes weigh 500 to 910 kg (1,100 to 2,000 lb), with males, normally larger than females, reaching the upper weight range. A record-sized savannah-type male weighed 1,000 kg (2,200 lb).[2] Forest type buffaloes, at 250 to 455 kg (550 to 1,000 lb), are only half that size.
