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One of the most iconic dinosaurs is the sauropod. These long-necked, plant-loving, lumbering giants were the largest animals ever to live on land.
Hundreds of millions of years later, most land animals are much smaller. But we do have a land creature with an absurdly long neck – the giraffe. Together with their long, spindly legs, their necks allow them to reach the tallest acacia leaves, but it comes at the cost of a raging blood pressure. Their hearts work overtime to pump blood all the way to their heads.
How does evolution arrive at such strange proportions?
In a new study experimenting with the giraffe’s body plan, scientists have aimed to answer this question. In doing so, they also revealed a surprise about sauropods – if these dinosaurs held their heads as high as giraffes do, they’d pass out.
Until next week,
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Signe Dean
Science + Technology Editor
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Roger S. Seymour, University of Adelaide; Edward Snelling, University of Pretoria
Giraffes might be about as tall as a land animal can get.
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Laura Nicole Driessen, University of Sydney
The alien question, while fun, generates misinformation and distracts from the science.
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Silvia Mantovanini, Curtin University; Natasha Hurley-Walker, Curtin University
The things we can see with our eyes are just one layer of the richness of the night sky.
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Jessica Taubert, The University of Queensland
A unique window into how an overactive brain amplifies the patterns we see in the world.
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Rachelle Wilson Tollemar, University of Wisconsin-Madison
While the rest of nature rises and slumbers to lunar and solar cycles, humans work and sleep to the resetting of their artificial clocks.
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Our most-read science articles this week
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Alistair Evans, Monash University
A new study shows how different snake species have evolved very different strategies to deliver their deadly bites.
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Paul Haskell-Dowland, Edith Cowan University; Ismini Vasileiou, De Montfort University
Passkeys are stronger than passwords by design. But they have other benefits too.
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Jessica Biesiekierski, The University of Melbourne
A new study shows gluten itself is rarely the cause of gut problems, whatever people think. But symptoms are real. So what’s really going on?
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Steve Turton, CQUniversity Australia
The backlash was swift and intense. Now the Bureau of Meteorology will have to make changes to its new website.
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More of this week's coverage
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Jade Fountain, University of Adelaide
Sniffing is a low-impact, low-cost and very valuable mental workout for dogs.
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Jennifer Zenker, Monash University
Often described as ‘miracle’ cells, stem cells need to be truly mastered if we’re to use them in medical treatments.
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Thomas Newsome, University of Sydney; William Ripple, Oregon State University
We are living in a hotter, more chaotic world, with more emissions, fires and fossil fuel consumption.
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Angela (Ang) McGaughran, University of Waikato; Manpreet K Dhami, Bioeconomy Science Institute
Natural spiderwebs are good at capturing DNA from the environment, but artificial webs are cheap and provide better control – without harm to spiders.
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Taylor Szyszka, University of Sydney; Davin Saviro Wijaya, Australian National University; Yu Heng Lau, University of Sydney
Better photosynthesis could boost crop yields by up to 60% – and a tiny box made of proteins could help.
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Archana Koirala, University of Sydney; Joel Vosu, University of Sydney
Chickenpox parties are a thing of the past but the virus is still circulating. Most illness is mild but some people can become seriously ill.
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Jane Melville, Museums Victoria Research Institute; Till Ramm, Museums Victoria Research Institute
Isolating the impacts of climate change is hard. But a new study shows how ancient fossils can help.
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