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Okay, so I kinda need help with something. For a few weeks I've been compiling a list of sources for the estimated food consumptions, energy intakes and metabolic rates for various extinct animals. I actually don't have one single reason for this, but the reason most relevant to this forum is that I'm using various primordial ecosystems as base templates from which to develop the ecosystems in the Alternate Solar System Project, and using the biology of certain specific species as base templates for the more interesting inhabitants of each world. The other main reason is that I've started throwing around ideas for a story to perhaps write after my current side-projects are done. Problem is, I've kinda hit a brick wall. You see, I've been successful getting data for the Wooly Mammoth, Megalodon, Paraceratherium and basically every dinosaur ever, but data for everything else is either just extrapolating from other animals (Mosasaurus was about the weight of an Orca so they must've eaten around the same lol), vague (Dimetrodon's metabolism was relatively high among synaposauromorphodonts), just saying what type of metabolism was used (Ichthyosaurs were thought to be endoexomesothermic) or unaccessible with my budget (You need $199.99 to view this research paper that might possibly tell you how much trilobites ate). So, as my final option I'm asking you, people of the KSP forum, if you have any data I can use for any of the following: Haikouichthys, Astrapsis, Cephalaspis or another pre-devonian fish Anomalocaris Any Trilobite Cameroceras, Tusoteuthis or another large cephalopod Any Eurypterid (preferably Megalograptus, Pterygotus or Jakelopterus but I'm not picky) Any Placoderm (preferably Bothriolepis or Dunkeosteus but I'm not picky) Stethacanthus, Hyneria or another non-Placoderm Devonian predator Hynerpeton, Proterogyrinus, Cassigyrinus, Diplocaulus or another Paleozoic amphibian Meganeura Arthropleura Any Permian Synapsid (preferably Edaphosaurus, Dimetrodon, Diictodon, Inostrancevia, Purlovia or Lycaenops but I'm not picky) Any Therocephalian Coelurosauravus Any Ichthyosaur (preferably Cymbospondylus, Ichthyosaurus, Shonisaurus, Shastasaurus or Opthalmosaurus but I'm not picky) Placerias Tanystropheus Thrinaxodon Any Ammonite Any Pliosaur (preferably Liopleurodon, or Kronosaurus but I'm not picky) Any Mosasaur (preferably Tylosaurus or Halisaurus but I'm not picky) Sarcosuchus, Kaprosuchus or another large crocodilian Xiphactinus Archelon Hesperornis, Ichthyornis or another Cretaceous bird Beelzebufo Carbonemys, Pristichampsus or another large Cenozoic reptile Livyatan, Basilosaurus or a similar Cenozoic whale Any interesting/cool/notable Cenozoic land mammal/bird (I'm not going to list them all) Anything you think should be in this list that isn't. Okay, that took way too long to write. So, to conclude... help with any of the above would be appreciated. Edit: Let me clear up some stuff here - I don't realistically plan on getting the entire list done, or even most of it in fact. And it's not a herculean task because even just one or two creatures on this list getting sufficient data will be worth it. Obviously more would be better but I'm not picky. - I'm okay with guesstimates, conjectures etc so long as they aren't just extrapolating from other animals (unless the two are really closely related). - I'm okay with getting more than one result for an animal for different possible lifestyles. - I'm not including microbes because, well, they don't fossilise as often and even if they did, I doubt they'd be very different from their present-day counterparts, at least from an ecological perspective. Edit: I think I found something that might contain useful information. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313792503_First_palaeohistological_inference_of_resting_metabolic_rate_in_an_extinct_synapsid_Moghreberia_nmachouensis_Therapsida_Anomodontia The only problem is it's using a measurement system (mLO2 h⁻¹ g−0.67) that I don't understand. So how do I translate that into calories or kilojoules or watts? Edit: I got another study that has the same unintelligible-unit-of-measurement problem. Again, help on converting it into something understandable would be appreciated. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301279899_Palaeohistological_Evidence_for_Ancestral_High_Metabolic_Rate_in_Archosaurs Also, I found a study that estimates the energy costs of flying/hunting in pterosaurs. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1925135/ Edit: I figured out that mgO2*kg^-1*s^-1 means "milligrams of oxygen consumed per kilogram of body mass per second" and mgO2*kg^-1*h^-1 means the same thing but "per hour" instead of "per second". As for mLO2 h⁻¹ g−0.67, I'm guessing the mLO2 h⁻¹ means "millilitres per hour", but I don't know what the g-0.67 means. Edit: We have our first completions! So I was impatient to see if anyone else could find a study estimating the basal metabolic rate of Pterosaurs (I looked everywhere but I couldn't find any), so instead I used the method at http://spec-evo.wikia.com/wiki/Speculative_Bioenergetics and used various metabolism types in my calculations. Combined with the study on Pterosaur flight, the end result is this little chart I made: Now, when I was making this chart I realised that finding the study and doing the extra calculations was all stuff I did completely on my own. But you've all still been helpful in giving advice and motivation, so thanks. But more "real" help with the next ones would be preferred. To recall, my current priorities now are: Finding out what the g^-0.67 in mLO2 h⁻¹ g^−0.67 means Finding out what the measurements and numbers on the table of marine vertebrates are Accessing the data in the trilobite study. I wish I could spare no expense and just purchase it but I have a budget of 0 funds right now Edit: We have our next completions! It's not as accurate as I would've liked but it's a lot better than nothing. So, there's a study at http://jeb.biologists.org/content/jexbio/204/3/607.full.pdf that finds an equation that can be used to estimate the metabolic rate of scorpions, and by extrapolating from the largest living scorpion I've managed to get mass estimates for Pulmonoscorpius and Brontoscorpio (along with their fictional oversized counterparts). Here i've complied a table for all of them, using both the scorpion equation (1) and a generic invertebrate Basal Metabolic Rate equation (2) I also got Titanoboa and Argentavis done with more accuracy, but I can tell noone's interested in this anymore except me so I guess I'll stop sharing my results for this stuff.