Neurons are required for sensation and an unusually long creature such as a dinosaur might have slower reaction times when something touched or hurt his tail. How long would it take for his brain to get the message and send it back to the peripheral nervous system to stimulate a reaction.
2006-10-02 19:52:31 · 11 answers · asked by Martha Washington 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
at the speed of light
2006-10-02 19:55:49 · answer #1 · answered by Kalooka 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
probably near instant.
First because examination of large organisms shows that nature has managed to keep decent / useful reaction times (average length of nerve cells, for example). There is no evidence that elephants, or killer whales, or whales, need several seconds to feel something happening to the farthest parts of their bodies. Ditto for some very long snakes (over 10 meters), or crocodiles.
Second because, just using plain logic, it would seem that an animal with reaction times of several seconds to feel a bite to the tail, would have awfully slim chances of survival (a T-Rex would have eaten a couple meters of you before you noticed, so you'd be as good as dead).
I think there was a time, maybe a century ago, when the understanding of the nervous system, or of dinosaurs, was much less good than today, when some people had written that dinosaurs would have had very slow reaction times, etc. But this is not an accepted view anymore. And since then it has been shown that many dinosaurs had hearts with several chambers (like us), it is suspected that many were hot blooded and fast moving, etc.
2006-10-02 20:41:35 · answer #2 · answered by AntoineBachmann 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your question made me curious. So I got out my stopwatch and bit the first dinosaur I could find on the tail. Before I could even glance at the watch, he had knocked me half-way across the rain forest and was coming after me. Barely escaped with my life.
I later found out he was the kind of dinosaur that had his brain located in his tail. So I can't really answer your question, but thought you might be able to use this information somehow.
2006-10-02 20:08:46 · answer #3 · answered by beast 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
• BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 102 – ANIMAL BIOLOGY...
the axon hillock in a neuron? 126. What cells myelinate neurons in the CNS and the PNS? ... dinosaur differ from an...
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Axons news, research, discoveries and...
... extension of a neuron that communicates with other neurons-and have used this ... dinosaur hunters, according to U of...
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Includes links to Genesis and NEURON. NEURON, a simulation environment for real neurons ... Wyoming Dinosaur Center....
www.cs.colostate.edu/~anderson/interes...
2006-10-02 19:59:39 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
About 5 seconds.
2006-10-02 19:59:43 · answer #5 · answered by Lee J 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
thats like the same question as how long does it take an electron to travel 10 km of wire vs 10 cm of wire.
Of course it will take longer for dinosaur to feel compare to something smaller, but the difference is so small that it's considered insignificant
2006-10-02 19:55:37 · answer #6 · answered by Mr.Moo 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
interesting question. how slow are elephants and whales to react. They are on a similar scale to the large Dino's. There might be some parallels there. Unfortunately I don't have any Dino's nerves handy to test.
2006-10-02 19:59:07 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
10 minutes.
2006-10-02 20:42:36 · answer #8 · answered by retorik75 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
less time than it takes to answer this question or dissertation would be my answer. why not ask dino from the flintstones? he's history as far as i know. connect with your ancestors.
2006-10-02 20:06:08 · answer #9 · answered by getit 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not sure that it matters much since he's gonna kick your butt when he realizes that you are messing with his tail.
2006-10-02 20:00:32 · answer #10 · answered by joesfoot 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋