Edmond G. Bertrand
Getting sticky.
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2018
- Messages
- 61
- Likes received
- 107
I spoke with Dr. Tom Tynning this morning. He said that despite any argument
about "magical animals", certain fundamental truths still pertain.
(1) A 300-ft animal just isn't possible. Period. End of argument. There's
simply no biological way to support just a length. Even the biggest of
the great Saurapods were massively shorter than the snake you're suggesting.
Here's the WIKI entry:
"There were larger dinosaurs, but knowledge of them is based entirely on a small number of fragmentary fossils. Most of the largest herbivorous specimens on record were discovered in the 1970s or later, and include the massive titanosaur Argentinosaurus huinculensis, which is the largest dinosaur known from uncontroversial evidence, estimated to have been 50–96.4 metric tons (55.1–106.3 short tons)[16] and 30–39.7 m (98–130 ft) long.[17][18] Some of the longest sauropods were those with exceptionally long, whip-like tails, such as the 29–33.5-metre-long (95–110 ft) Diplodocus hallorum[10][18] (formerly Seismosaurus) and the 33- to 35-metre-long (108–115 ft) Supersaurus.[19][18] The tallest was the 18-metre-tall (59 ft) Brachiosaurus.[citation needed]"
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_size
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These animals, like Giraffes today, had secondary hearts, in order to move the blood around in an
efficient way.
A 100-meter long animal would have to have at least three hearts, maybe 4. It would have to eat so much
that the surrounding area would be denuded of prey in short order. It would have to eat massive animals -
like the dinosaurs of old - and those simply don't exist, even in JKR's world. SO, there's no way
for you to reasonably support this idea, unless you can somehow talk your way round these fundamental issues.
Secondly, if a 1000 yr old basilisk was active in an area, it would leave very, very definitive tracks. It would be incredibly
obvious that a snake of titanic size was moving around and the tracks would lead right to the Castle. Impossible to miss.
Hagrid would see those tracks and know them for what they are and he would tell Dumbledore.
Third, not all the skins that the Basilisk would shed would have been shed inside the castle's tunnels. At least one, or more
would have been shed in the woods. Again - impossible to miss. The Centaurs would have found such for sure and despite
their dislike for people, they would have said something to Hagrid or the Headmaster.
SO.... this has to be resolved within the story. It's too glaring an issue to just sit out there, without explanation.
about "magical animals", certain fundamental truths still pertain.
(1) A 300-ft animal just isn't possible. Period. End of argument. There's
simply no biological way to support just a length. Even the biggest of
the great Saurapods were massively shorter than the snake you're suggesting.
Here's the WIKI entry:
"There were larger dinosaurs, but knowledge of them is based entirely on a small number of fragmentary fossils. Most of the largest herbivorous specimens on record were discovered in the 1970s or later, and include the massive titanosaur Argentinosaurus huinculensis, which is the largest dinosaur known from uncontroversial evidence, estimated to have been 50–96.4 metric tons (55.1–106.3 short tons)[16] and 30–39.7 m (98–130 ft) long.[17][18] Some of the longest sauropods were those with exceptionally long, whip-like tails, such as the 29–33.5-metre-long (95–110 ft) Diplodocus hallorum[10][18] (formerly Seismosaurus) and the 33- to 35-metre-long (108–115 ft) Supersaurus.[19][18] The tallest was the 18-metre-tall (59 ft) Brachiosaurus.[citation needed]"
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_size
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These animals, like Giraffes today, had secondary hearts, in order to move the blood around in an
efficient way.
A 100-meter long animal would have to have at least three hearts, maybe 4. It would have to eat so much
that the surrounding area would be denuded of prey in short order. It would have to eat massive animals -
like the dinosaurs of old - and those simply don't exist, even in JKR's world. SO, there's no way
for you to reasonably support this idea, unless you can somehow talk your way round these fundamental issues.
Secondly, if a 1000 yr old basilisk was active in an area, it would leave very, very definitive tracks. It would be incredibly
obvious that a snake of titanic size was moving around and the tracks would lead right to the Castle. Impossible to miss.
Hagrid would see those tracks and know them for what they are and he would tell Dumbledore.
Third, not all the skins that the Basilisk would shed would have been shed inside the castle's tunnels. At least one, or more
would have been shed in the woods. Again - impossible to miss. The Centaurs would have found such for sure and despite
their dislike for people, they would have said something to Hagrid or the Headmaster.
SO.... this has to be resolved within the story. It's too glaring an issue to just sit out there, without explanation.
