Year: 2015, Number: 5, Pages: 93-113
From the stand point of the concept of “global evolutionism”, we discuss a paleontological paradox that many animals that become extinct in different geological epochs would not be able to live on the modern Earth because of physical limitations. If the bones and muscles of giant Mesozoic terrestrial dinosaurs the same tensile and bending strength as modern animals have (“biological uniformitarianism”), they would be crushed by their own weight. The empirical data are indicative of exponential decrease in maximum masses of terrestrial animals during the last 150 million years. Mathematical data processing using the method of ordinary least squares (OLS) allowed us to determine the maximal mass of contemporary animals m0 =17.6 t and an exponent index = 1.464102 [my1]. Based on the dimensionality theory, we related the variation of maximal mass to the variation of gravitational acceleration g. Analysis of the possible astronomical, physical, and geophysical reasons of gravitational acceleration variations has led us to conclude that the only physical process to explain this fact is the accretion of cosmic matter (meteorites and dust) on the Earth surface and that the only non-contradicting model is the “expanding Earth” model. Our estimates show that the Earth dimensions have increased 2.08-fold over the last 150-200 my. This result accords well with the age and current estimates of the area of the oceanic crust. With a 2.08-fold decrease in the modern dimensions of the Earth, all continental crust blocks would join together into a continuous lithospheric massif with a small “window” of ancient oceanic crust dated 280 my, which corresponds to the modern Eastern Mediterranean.