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knotacylon t1_iqs7rqz wrote

Crocodiles sun bath, a lot. Body size is mostly dependent on how readily available food is. Crocodiles are big because their diet can afford it, they used to be bigger because the animals they preyed upon were bigger. It's not unheard of for large animals to go extinct when their food source begins to diminish (e.g. titana boa, megalodons, etc.)

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kittenTakeover t1_iqu7xal wrote

Body size is affected by a lot of factors. One of the biggest is if they have active aspiration and circulation or passive aspiration and circulation. The more passive the more they benefit from thin bodies with high surface area ratios to absorb oxygen.

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knotacylon t1_iqvi1ke wrote

That's true, I forgot about that. That's why insects and other arthropods were bigger when the earth had a higher amount of O2 in the atmosphere and shrank when the O2 levels dropped.

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