I think it’d be really odd if, like beavers, we continued to grow our entire lives, instead of reaching “full size” in our late teens and then stopping. Maybe an additional inch in height every year (and proportional bone girth for support). A man who was 6 feet tall when he was 18 would be 7’ when he hit 30, and 10’ 3” at 65.
One ramification: Instead of subway cars being packed with tiny ancient Chinese ladies, they’d be packed with ENORMOUS ancient Chinese ladies.
Night-Gaunt, yeah, beavers continue to grow throughout their adult lives. So far as I know, they’re one of the few (maybe the only?) mammals that do so. I don’t know their annual growth rate, post-maturity, so I don’t know how much bigger, say, a 15 year-old beaver would be than a 5 year-old beaver, but considering their size range according to the site I just checked is given as “22 to 75 pounds”, it might be considerable.
(Another anomoly among mammals is that female beavers are as large as or larger than males.)
The fossil record indicates that there used to be simply GIGANTIC beavers out there, but I don’t know whether their more moderate modern size is a result of shorter life-spans (16 years is about the limit nowadays), or that they were just bigger then in the first place, or a combination of both factors.
(There are also, of course, many fish which grow throughout their lives; hence the number of “Ol’ General” catfish you hear stories of.)
Hillbillyman over 13 years ago
Id be a coon dig.
ponytail56 over 13 years ago
you mean we don’t
fritzoid Premium Member over 13 years ago
I think it’d be really odd if, like beavers, we continued to grow our entire lives, instead of reaching “full size” in our late teens and then stopping. Maybe an additional inch in height every year (and proportional bone girth for support). A man who was 6 feet tall when he was 18 would be 7’ when he hit 30, and 10’ 3” at 65.
One ramification: Instead of subway cars being packed with tiny ancient Chinese ladies, they’d be packed with ENORMOUS ancient Chinese ladies.
deadheadzan over 13 years ago
What a perfect picture of how many sizes of dogs there are!
Dirty Dragon over 13 years ago
I see “Spiny Norman” the hedgehog in the last panel.
fritzoid Premium Member over 13 years ago
Night-Gaunt, yeah, beavers continue to grow throughout their adult lives. So far as I know, they’re one of the few (maybe the only?) mammals that do so. I don’t know their annual growth rate, post-maturity, so I don’t know how much bigger, say, a 15 year-old beaver would be than a 5 year-old beaver, but considering their size range according to the site I just checked is given as “22 to 75 pounds”, it might be considerable.
(Another anomoly among mammals is that female beavers are as large as or larger than males.)
The fossil record indicates that there used to be simply GIGANTIC beavers out there, but I don’t know whether their more moderate modern size is a result of shorter life-spans (16 years is about the limit nowadays), or that they were just bigger then in the first place, or a combination of both factors.
(There are also, of course, many fish which grow throughout their lives; hence the number of “Ol’ General” catfish you hear stories of.)
bergamot over 13 years ago
Don’t we?