Paper 7

The sea animals and the increase of gravity

Ramin Amir mardfar

(1995)

The sea animals and the increase of gravity


We knew that how the increase of gravity affected the earth's animals from past up to now. Here there is a question, can the increase of gravity affect the sea animals or not?
To answer this question, we should investigate that whether the sea animals have made their bodies smaller, from past up to now, Let's investigate different class of sea animals. We will observe sell from mollusks group. Whether they had large bodies in the past, in compare with their today's bodies or not?
Endoceras, which was 4.5m in diameter, lived 500 million years ago, but now their body size is very small. From arthropods group, there were Eurypterids, which lived 500 million years ago, and were 3m in length. The body length of aquatic spiders, which lived 330 million years ago, was 1.8m. But today we don't see such arthropods. In the past there were large fishes with heavy bony armor, but now there is no trace of them. One species of fish which survived from very old days, is 2m in length and has 90kg weight, and we can say that, it comes from the ancestors of today’s fishes, it lived in low and coastal waters million years ago, and even it used its fins to move on cast. But now it lives in the abyss of 700m of the ocean, and it is not able to go upper, and if it will be brought to upper levels, it will die in a short time.
Large reptiles like Ichthyosaurus and Ophthalmosaurus, which were like today’s dolphins, and also Plesiasaurus. And Elasmosaurus with long bodies, which lived in the past, have been disappeared. Large sea mammals, like whale, dolphin and manatee, live in to day's seas, but it is interesting that, sometimes they try to come out of the sea and go to the coast, but they are not able to survive for long time, and they die.
So in a general look, we can see that all groups of sea animals had large species in compare with today's species. Can we explain their bodies' getting smaller with the increase of gravity?
When Eurypterid lived 500 years ago, with 3m length, certainly, the gravity was less enough to let it to move with its large body and go hunting, and also let its open circulatory system to transfer the blood to different parts of its body. But later when the gravity increased, they lost this ability and made their bodies smaller. Certainly when Endoceras which is a mollusk, lived with a shell with 4.5m in diameter, 500 million years ago, the gravity was less enough to let it to move its body, and let its open circulatory system to take the blood to different parts of its body.
By the increase of gravity, were not able to live with their large bodies and they became smaller. In the past fishes with heavy bony armor, were able to swim in the water very easily, but later, the increase of gravity didn't let them to live in the sea, so they had to put aside their heavy bony armor, and decrease their weight. With more increase of gravity, they used Air swim bladder, to decrease their weight, which saved them like a life jacket from sinking in the depth of sea. Among them, Coelacunthithae had no change to use life jacket and the gravity draw it in the deep sea. This fish which once was able to swim in surface waters with its large and heavy body, with increase of gravity, sink in the depth of the water more and more. Dog sharks instead of using of using life jacket used another way against the gravity. To fly in the sky, we can use balloon or plane. Ordinary fishes used air swim bladder, which acted like a balloon, but the sharks used their fins like a wing. Balloon is able to stand in the sky without any movement, so fish is able to stand in water without moving and without sinking into the deep water. But the plane is not able to stand in the sky without moving, and in order to avoid crashing, it must move all the time, so sharks, must move all the time in order to avoid crashing in to the depths of the water.
Old sea reptiles like Ichthyosaurs and Plesiosaurs, which had very large bodies, lived in the water all the time and didn't come on the earth. Although they used air oxygen to breath, but they were not able to live out of water, as do to day's whales and dolphins. With the increase of gravity, it was difficult and exhausting for them to swim in the water with those large bodies. The increased gravity tried to draw them into the deep water, but they had to come to the surface of the water to breathe. The gravity became more and they became more tired. Some of them came to the coast in order to rest, but they couldn't live out of water for a time and they died. So they moved toward the coast in-groups and died. The increase of gravity continued and also now it continues, and now it is the turn of another class of animals, i.e. sea mammals. The gravity, with its more increase, wants to put them aside. With the increase of gravity, the sea mammals became heavier and it is difficult for them to swim. Some of them are not able to swim on the surface of the water because of exhaustion, and in order to avoid sinking in the depth of the sea they move toward the coast, so that they can rest on the sands of the coast. If we were able to understand their dialogue, we would hear that they say "We are tired, let us rest" but the earth kills them cruelly, and it hosts its tired guests in this way.

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ISBN 964-7061-4-8