The classic question.
Rules: This is a fight in an arena, you are unarmed, you cannot leave the arena until every other animal is dead, and while the animals are as intelligent as normal they do understand that they’re fighting you and will try to do so, they won’t just run away.
1 horse sized duck. Thanks to the square cube law, it will immediately crumple as its physiology runs afoul of its massively increased size. Then I will tap it with my toe and claim victory :very-intelligent:
running a-fowl :kelly:
Dinosaurs already gamed the square cube law with hollow bones.
non-bird dinosaurs had hollow bones?
Yeah, non-bird dinosaurs were like an amalgamation of reptiles and birds. I think sauropods were even theorized to use airsacs like pneumatic pumps to get blood to their head.
you dont become largest land animal ever by an order of magnitude above the competition by being heavy and inefficient
much larger birds and theropods than a duck are perfectly capable of standing, and for their weight bird bones are very strong to be able to support the strain of gigantic flight muscles while also minimizing the weight they must lift.
yeah, but those animals evolved in a way that let them handle the weight, whereas a duck magically growing to the size of a horse hasn't had however many million years to accommodate the needs of a bigger, heavier body
those animals are its ancestor and it retains many of the features that allowed them to be that size, it may not be optimized and couldnt live a full healthy life if simply scaled up but it wouldnt crumple like paper and would have long enough to crush you in its bill or crack your skull with its wing.
Idk been taking the duckpill since answering the first question and according to years-old farming forums their legs are already very weak and prone to injury, so the scaling might be enough to cause a collapse, especially if it has to speedwaddle after me