While exploring the coasts of east Darwin (some made up name), you find the skeleton of an apparently large organism on the beach. The skeleton is approximately 25m long, and appears to be some type of vertebrate-like organism. The organism has four relatively short limbs, attached to a heavy pectoral and pelvic girdle. There is no soft tissue left on the skeleton to assist you on your investigation. Because of it’s location, you are at first unsure if it is an aquatic organism that washed up on the beach, or a terrestrial organism that died near the seashore.
1) Describe some of the problems associated with the size of the organism mentioned above. In your answer, address possible problems with movement, transfer of heat energy generated by the body and movement of materials across the epidermis?
2) Upon removing the remains described in first paragraph, you find several small skeletons (tail to head length 15 cm) under the larger remains. You decide to use this as a teaching moment for some of the newer members of your science team and proceed to explain to these new science trainees the problems that small organisms have in surviving in their environment and the solutions that they typically evolve.