What would you look like if you were a giant? | How Animal Skulls Change with Size

[@secondbeamship]

TF2 Heavy.

[@KiraiKatsuji]

That's actually perfect example.

[@agorman1341]

WAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA! CRY SOME MORE!!!!!

[@HupfderFloh]

“I have yet to meet someone who can outsmart bullet”

[@hugotheimpecileone]

"i'm getting too old and giant for this."

[@agorman1341]

@@secondbeamship pootis- POW! HAHA!!

[@RHR199X]

So they wouldn’t really be small brained, but rather normal brained people with huge bodies. It’s actually quite interesting to think about. They could be scientists or philosophers and still tower over most people and animals.

[@TheSkullywagLab]

Hi! Yep - their brains would still be bigger than ours. Just not quite as big in relation to the size of their skull and skeleton. Just like in the fox vs wolf example :)

[@dawndefender]

this reminds me of "ogre stupid" meme: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6WVoYyHnsx8nsUsi=8UiWFiMXqURXFrLz

[@Bushman06]

the wrinkles in your brain is what would measure how smart you are I believe

[@minutemansam1214]

@@Bushman06 It's EQ.

[@Bushman06]

@@minutemansam1214 Okay

[@captainstroon1555]

So the beady eyed, coneheaded, dimwit giants in so many children books are a case of getting the right answer using the wrong formula. There is a big exception to the eye to size ratio rule: Colossal squids. But they don't have skulls, so the rule still stands for orbit size. (Yes, it's actually just the same as with human brains, beneficial adaptations outweigh general trends)

[@TheSkullywagLab]

Right answer, wrong formula - I like that! Yeah, these patterns tend to assume an “all-else-being-equal” situation. Deviations owing to selective pressures can be seen all over the place though. Squid are just crazy though. Eyes that enormous seem to be only possible in large deep-sea, vision-dependent animals. In caves, animals tend to lose vision. And nocturnal animals can have bigger eyes than normal, but nothing as crazy as the deep sea. I guess the moon offers more light than down in the depths.

[@captainstroon1555]

@@TheSkullywagLab I guess cave animals would retain their vision more often if bioluminescence was as common in caves as it is in the deep sea. But most caves have way more obstructions than the open water column, so glowing in the dark would be way less useful there. The deep sea would be a great place to find giants with human proportions: The massive eyes are to see in the lightless abyss and the giant braincase might house a spermaceti organ besides the brain itself. Buoyancy would also help a lot with square cube law related issues.

[@outoforder8791]

Ichthyosaurs actually had disproportionately large eyes as well and they did have a skull. So that's an actual exception to the rule.

[@captainstroon1555]

@@outoforder8791 I just watched Lindsay Nikole's jurassic video and thought the exact same thing.

[@outoforder8791]

@@captainstroon1555 Same! That's where I got it from, haha.

[@danwebber9494]

Your giant skull looks a lot like gigantopithicus reconstructions. Interesting

[@princessmaly]

Two hypothetical reconstructions of giant apes. Makes sense to me!

[@user-fx6tp3gs8s]

Imagine that....

[@chriscooper654]

Fascinating. I was briefly acquainted with a guy who was 6' 8" tall in college. His descriptions of how relatively minor (to most people) issues could be major ones for him- like being able to buckle up in a car or airplane seat- were an eye-opener. Subscribed.

[@BasicallyBaconSandvichIV]

How tall is that? I know a guy whose 1.99, but I don't know if that's bigger or smaller then that. I myself am slightly above average, nearly 1.90, so while not experiencing anywhere that amount of problems, most things that go over peoples head do hit me right in the forehead. Which that 1.99 guy doesn't have to worry about as much cause it's eye height for him.

[@Amy_the_Lizard]

​@BasicallyBaconSandvichIV it's about 2.03 meters

[@jackmeyers7805]

I work with a man who my crew affectionately calls 5X Phil, due to the fact that a 5XL Carhart shirt fits him tightly. He is 7'1 and, according to our scales in the shipping department, weighs 411lbs. The man is built like a shaved white silverback and is easily one of the wisest, most laid-back people I've ever met.

[@doctornewell4771]

Out of all the cars I've been in, the brand that does this the worst is probably Hyundai. You only need to be a couple inches above average height for your knees to be too high to fit under the steering wheel.

[@StoneBox_761a]

one of my uncles before he died was 7'2, very large and menacing person but well hearted, he was a fisherman and his fists were classified as weapons, he was chill.

[@iansahleen1173]

I think that the Ogryns from Warhammer 40,000 are actually a very good example of what these adaptations would look like in practice

[@Akrilloth]

Aided by the fact they have like 3 inches of bone around their brain as well. .

[@maximemoulin8761]

But Ogryns' diminished brain function in lore follow the false trope of ''small head = dumb'' we saw with the cone headed giant in the video. I also feel their legs are too small for their body size, but that's not skull related.

[@mollymillions6586]

Ogryns are sometimes shown to be a lot smarter than they're given credit for. Maybe the Imperium is just refusing them proper education so it can keep using them as cheap (well, cheaper) labor.

[@Doomwolf82002]

@@maximemoulin8761 Actually, it turns out their low intelligence is more a result of the poor environment they grew up as one book feature a fairly smart Ogryn who explains this very concept.

[@scelonferdi]

There are a few issues with Ogryns, such as their build and particularly size being an adaptation to higher gravity. That's bull, because a) 38.000 years aren't enough for evolutionary changes of that magnitude and b) they'd pobably be smaller due to square cube law.

[@stirpsromana]

No ads, straight to the point, great explaining, charisma. This feels like one of the old kind of KZbin channels. You just gained a sub man, great video, especially for taking into consideration for those into world building!

[@TheSkullywagLab]

Thanks! I'm a big fan of the creature design and world building communities. I'd be keen to dive more into that side of things. Maybe showcase some ideas of different artists or something. Not sure how to go about that yet though. I'm sure it'll manifest itself with time 😄

[@saengpharn3054]

Funny enough of all depiction in a media, the Giant Skeletons from dark souls 1 have facial proportions on thier skulls like the reconstruction you did in this video

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

From Soft are great for having niche interests and eclectic knowledge randomly sprinkled into their games, like Miyazaki having a deep interest in botany and horticulture, leading to stuff like the copper nails driven into tree roots or areas that are under siege by roots (copper nails are used to kill tree stumps, but they can also be used to kill individual roots in some cases).

[@vegasflyboy67]

I like your pace. A whole lot of interesting information in under ten minutes and I didn't even notice the time.

[@TheSkullywagLab]

Great feedback, thanks!

[@vegasflyboy67]

@TheSkullywagLab No problem 😊 Just discovered the channel and subscribed.

[@JanetStarChild]

These days now, finding a KZbin video under ten minutes is like finding a rare fossil. A shame that so many KZbinrs lately want to monopolize their viewers' free time with excessively long videos.

[@vegasflyboy67]

@JanetStarChild There is some truth to that. I get annoyed when they repeat stuff with the same graphics, and I feel I'm getting milked for time. That's why I felt I had to say something. They got a whole lot of information in a short time, and I didn't get bored. Plus, skulls! What's not to like!

[@sylnz97]

thought "damn those are alot of skulls behind him" and then I saw the channel name lol bro is really into skulls and I respect that

[@TheSkullywagLab]

😆💀🤓

[@sylnz97]

@@TheSkullywagLab the algorithm blessed me with some good content

[@schnek8927]

I didn’t even notice them, until reading your comment and going back to check. >.>

[@severedvibrations1211]

Gorilla skulls have the large sagital ridge in males and much less so in females. Consider the effects of sexual dimorphism in species skeletal structure. Renderings of Gigantopithicus have large ridges, though no full skull has been found to date. Please consider effects of traits like nocturnal adaptation, habitat, and dietary requirements of species as well A fun series of thought experiments in the video. Well done 👏

[@TheSkullywagLab]

Thanks for the comment! Yep, many other videos on many important topics hopefully to come on the channel 💀🤓 Yeah I think there's only teeth of Gigantopithecus found, right? Maybe some maxillary bone... But for sure a primate of that estimated size would have a good sized sagittal crest. RE adaptations. Groups of species will typically follow an allometric regression line of shape over size, which includes the overall patterns I've described here, among others. I like to call it an "all-else- being-equal" line. Adaptations to niche-specific selective pressures tend to lead to deviations from the regression line, in the form of residuals. If you're interested, we published a nice example of this in Australian murid rodents this year. See Marcy et al. 2024 Ecology & Evolution.

[@severedvibrations1211]

@@TheSkullywagLab thanks for replying, I'll have to go check that out!

[@TheSkullywagLab]

@@severedvibrations1211 No problem! You can find all my papers in the Google Scholar or Researchgate links in my channel bio. All should be fully available for public view :)

[@Amy_the_Lizard]

Would also like to mention that in primates sexual dimorphism is related to mating behavior, with species that are typically polygamous having the most extreme dimorphism, and species that are typically monogamous like gibbons having almost none, and species with promiscuous breeding (where all individuals have multiple mates regardless of gender) being in the middle. Humans, incidentally, fall in between the expected ranges for highly monogamous and highly promiscuous, but lean a bit more towards the monogamous end of the degree of dimorphism, which makes sense considering that the majority of humans do exhibit pair bonding, but most people will have multiple partners over the course of their lifetime. If we assume the giants would have similar mating patterns as us, they would have waaaaaay less dimorphism than Gorillas

[@milkiboreasu]

@@Amy_the_Lizard saggital crests and other traits of a more robust skull are also important for strong jaws, and humans already do have strong jaws contrary to popular belief, as well as very efficient jaws so if we got giant i'd assume we'd have a more slight crest than a gorilla but still a more robust skulls to process all that food we'd need easier

[@kennethsatria6607]

Man I like this channel, so many skull based biology

[@TheSkullywagLab]

I think we need more videos then😝

[@iansahleen1173]

Funny running into you here love your AMVs

[@ExtremeMadnessX]

Bigger brain = smarter work only in case with mammals. Animals with different structured brains like birds and cephalopods can do the same thing as mammals with relatively smaller brains.

[@TheSkullywagLab]

Absolutely! That's why its so hard to give an answer for the patterns of brain size we see. At first glance, it seems like it should be some obvious explanation to do with optimising energy budgets or processing power. But when you look at what some birds are capable of with brains so much smaller, everything gets thrown out the window. And cephalopods are just crazy with their donut shaped brains... Not sure where to start with those haha

[@definitivamenteno-malo7919]

​@@TheSkullywagLab toroidal shaped brains? That explains why they are so smart

[@minutemansam1214]

This rule holds true for birds as well, but EQ formulas need to be tailored for whether an animal is a mammal, reptile, bird, insect, or cephalopod.

[@minaashido518]

@@definitivamenteno-malo7919the brain wraps around their oesophagus so if they take too big a bite they die

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

Overall it's worth remembering that there's dozens to hundreds of different uses for brains, and different clades spec into different parts of that immense skill tree.

[@marcopohl4875]

I'm world building for a book a friend of mine wants to write. In this world, giants are the original mages, our original reasoning being that their several century lifespans gave them enough time to study magic. Maybe their huge brains also contributed to their magic affinity?

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

One of the better uses for extra brain size is memory, as it's (relatively speaking) a lower cost activity, so it could mean giants were better able to memorise the quirks of spells, making them able to operate without tomes and grimoires and instead share magic orally? This would certainly predispose them to selective pressures that would increase magic affinity and capacity over generations, in much the same way linguistic ability was selected for in early homosapiens.

[@tealkerberus748]

Does a larger size necessarily give a longer lifespan? In dogs, the largest breeds have the shortest life expectancy, and the smallest, the longest. Less body mass means less strain on its bones, joints, heart, and other internal organs. A smaller animal also has fewer body cells in total, so fewer opportunities for things to go wrong, such as cancer - unless a larger animal has some mutation that makes it very resistant to cancer, like elephants do. If you took a large species that had a cancer-preventing mutation like elephants do, and then gave it an island dwarfing experience so it was smaller and had an even longer life, you would be more likely to get a species that can have the very long life you're looking for.

[@danieladamczyk4024]

My biopunk side is itching. Im gona learn a lot about bones here. And i love it.

[@RealPaleontology]

Great job Dr Rex! Really enjoyed it. I think that this speculative evolution theme will attract a lot of attention!

[@TheSkullywagLab]

Thanks Professor Wroe! There's a lot of fun to be had yet 🤓💀

[@Flesh_Wizard]

Skull issue _💀_

[@ctdaniels7049]

HAH

[@adammcclelland5746]

I’m actually working on my own giant humanoids. Thanks for the pointers, Skullywag.

[@westvirginiaglutenfreepepp7006]

Thank you for having subtitles/closed captions. That alone is worth a sub

[@TheSkullywagLab]

That's great! It might take time, but it should be part of any upload process IMO

[@christiansherlock6662]

I absolutely love this video! Experts applying their knowledge to fantasy and spec evo stuff always gives the best insights!

[@src6339]

Those aren't giant skeletons. What we're seeing in these photos of "gaints" are infact tiny teams of archaeologists uncovering normal sized archaeological remains 🤔

[@tell-me-a-story-]

Giants do exist. They’re not as big as elephants, but they can be almost twice the height of regular people. Gigantism is real, just like dwarfism is real.

[@OakenTome]

Gigantism in humans still does not result in anything reasonably close to twice the height of the average population. Dwarfism also isn't generally that extreme.

[@JonathanGhost42]

I was seeking some videos about speculative biology of giants for the giants in my fantasy-setting and this video of yours was a very big help. Thank you!

[@TheSkullywagLab]

See, THIS is why I wanted to start a channel. A chance to discover so many people doing cool things. Sounds like fascinating work! Keep me posted 💀🤓

[@riarivera5995]

As a writer, i actually tried to mitigate this by tampering with the world itself. A world that is darker and has longer night cycles would dictate the need for larger eyes, especially if smaller species (like humans) were predators that you had to look out for. Larger eyes allow for much more detail, and giant eyes would see alot relative to the light bouncing back at them. However this would also mean they would be nocturnal, if not awake during dawns dusk and nigg when the light is less so. Adding to their terrifying reputations and making humans fearful of them.

[@schnek8927]

But why would they be nocturnal to begin with? Unless the days are almost absurdly short, they’d still most likely take advantage of what little daylight they had. Are humans (or humanoids) the only reason? Then they’d have to have lived close to humans long enough to evolve those adaptations.

[@riarivera5995]

​@@schnek8927@schnek8927 To avoid times in which humans are most active most likely. The places in which they live are also mostly arctic. Living part of the time in the south gathering food, and when summer comes and it gets too hot, they migrate back north into the icy tundra. To prevent Snowblindess they go out hunting and fishing at night or in the early hours of the morning when sea life is active. Large eyes might also help to swim to darker areas under glaciers to reach urchins, crabs, sea stars that dwell on the sea bed.

[@riarivera5995]

​@@schnek8927 the days are much shorter, especially as they live in the north and travel south during the autumn, winter and early spring to gather food that is more abundant in a climate that won't make them overheat. Their size is also better explained by making them partially aquatic akin to seals or amphibians. Gravity works differently in water. Now let's look at humans, were afraid of the dark, winter and cold are often depressing to us, and large bodies of water hold things we don't fully understand. That's three reasons humanity would have a natural fear of these creatures and cause friction between them despite their necessity of living at close proximity. Humans are stubborn. We'd rather kill off s threat than leave our territory, but when he threat is not only huge but elusive it makes things tricky and rife for interesting interactions

[@Happy-Honkey]

This falls into….things I did not think that I ever needed to know, but now that I do; I find extremely interesting category. Really cool vid man.

[@TheSkullywagLab]

@@Happy-Honkey thanks!

[@quinnbuffet3825]

MORE SPECULATIVE ESSAYS LIKE THIS yes indeed

[@1forge2rulethemall88]

I suspect the comparatively smaller brains and eyes would be due to the fact that increasing the size wouldn't necessarily increase its ability to function. When we build battleships and tanks we don't put giant cameras on them, we put several small cameras, when nature puts eyes on big creatures it doesnt have to resort to giant ones because relatively small ones still do the job fine. Same with the brain, sure a bigger body means you need more brain mass, but once you care for the minimum requirements of handling extra input and output (body wise) you then just need as much brain as is needed to handle basic thinking and descision making which would have similar constraints to a smaller creature.

[@BOTB_RBLX]

You can already see some of the changes you'd expect a giant to have in people with acromegaly, which often comes with the condition that causes giants, gigantism.

[@0rion5212]

I would love an episode on how the Grey Alien skull would have to accommodate their giant eyes and how the brain scale and skull shape might be impacted by that and also the scale of the beings overall.

[@Zarmdthecoolest]

This actually provides a lot of insight as to why humans find smaller animals cuter- they have larger eyes relative to their size. Very cool!

[@kikivoorburg]

I think it’s more the other way around - things that resemble human babies are cute to us (because cuteness probably evolved to keep us caring for our kids). Babies are smaller and thus have proportionally larger eyes, which explains why we find large eyes cute

[@Zarmdthecoolest]

@@kikivoorburg that's a better way of explaining it lol

[@TotallyS4BON]

wow, amazing video!! thank you so much for including closed captions 🩵 love the topics you cover, and the way you explain things make it so easy to digest. i can already tell i’ll be a regular viewer of this channel!

[@TheSkullywagLab]

Thanks! I'm glad the captions are being put to good use 💀🤓

[@kingcharlestheturd3882]

Please make one of you as a tiny human-like species!! I would be very interested to see how that looks.

[@MercyMorgan-r4u]

I’m working on a giant story right now. Thanks for this great input.

[@Threetails]

Wouldn't a giant human also be more prognathic?

[@TheSkullywagLab]

Excellent question! The short answer is you would be correct in most circumstances. But it's not a foregone conclusion. I'll be doing a video on how biomechanics plays a role in this soon :)

[@the_neanderthal09]

This video is really helpful! i am working on 3D modeling a "Bigfoot" skull based off the paranthropus hominin genus and this gave a lot more insights as to what it might just look like. Thanks

[@TheSkullywagLab]

Fantastic! I'm keen to see your results. Keep me posted

[@szushycats]

Loved the video! Especially the demonstrations :D

[@MrSatan1003]

The point about eyes here using extant large animals is potentially misleading I think. Elephants are herbivores, and whales are not predominantly relying on their eyes for finding food. By comparison, humans are apex predators, and we have binocular vision and (contrary to some popular misconceptions) extremely good colour eyesight. Indeed our reliance on distance weapons (and there's no reason that giants might not use something similar like slings or throwing spears) makes vision perhaps unusually important for humans compared to other apex predators. If you wanted to find a giant bipedal apex predator roughly similar in size to an African elephant, a better comparison might be the Tyrannosaurus Rex, which had the largest eyes of any creature known to have lived, giving it impeccable vision. Whilst giant humanoids might not necessarily need eyes that sharp, any evolutionary process that selected for such large size is likely going to be related to predation on (or avoid predation from) other megafauna, and I think it would be odd if superior vision at the larger kind of distances a three or four metre tall person would be able to see wouldn't be positively selected for.

[@reeahsalamander]

Glad KZbin recommended this video, really cool stuff! I’ve never given the game of thrones giants much thought, but you’re totally right it looks like there was some proper evolutionary biology research that went into the design!

[@orksy2935]

Not a neuro scientist, but I recall a couple of discussions about brain size and it's speculated that humans are currently close to the upper limit of size while remaining functional. Simply put, the bigger the brain, the longer a signal has to travel, meaning slower and less coherent thought unless the neurons can communicate faster. As such, a giant with a smaller brain would at least be more lucid and faster to react compared to a giant with a scaled up brain.

[@Minyassa]

Fantastic! I very much look forward to more of these speculative essays. I very much want to know what biological influences might reshape creatures of legend such as gryphons or rocs. I also want to know what sort of biological differences would come about to accommodate some of the abilities of other mythological creatures, like perhaps shielding needed in a dragon's skull to protect its brain from the heat of spitting a fiery substance, or how a human-shaped skull would be reshaped by said human having gills. Or even how a horse's skull would have to be different to support a unicorn horn (ignoring the sensible 'unicorns are goats' issue). All sorts of fun stuff to delve into. I would love to see how a forensic sculptor would render the faces of someone with your micro and macro human skulls. I especially want to see how cute "hobbits" would be.

[@Dingghis_Khaan]

I'm no evolutionary biologist or zoologist, but I imagine the reason why larger vertebrates have smaller eyes is because being large means eyesight is not very important. They don't really need to watch for much, and details become less and less important the larger they get. Megafauna are often herbivorous, too, and you don't need to stalk a tree. Even the largest carnivorous theropods of the Cretaceous and Jurassic didn't have to bother with chasing small prey outside of fish, because herbivorous megafauna were relatively abundant where they lived. What I'm getting at is that really good eyesight is not worth the biological investment when you're too big for small things. The only place where being big _and_ having really good eyesight are both advantageous is at ocean depths where there's a lot of space to grow, not much food to eat, a lot of large opportunistic predators, and not much light to see them.

[@jayjenkins6021]

Awesome presentation. I have never seen science applied to giants like this. Interesting. Maybe if the Smithsonian will release a few giant skeletons do we can see if you are right!

[@Halbared]

The Song of Ice and Fire giants are analogous to Yetis. They were shaved a wee bit for the programme. Still very good.

[@brnecessities3335]

Giant you was a very enjoyable comparison haha. I definitely enjoy this kind of analysis and application of real world elements to things generally viewed as fantastical. Makes the creative part of my brain think of all the possibilities with other creature designs…

[@TheSkullywagLab]

Great! I'm hoping my videos can tap into both science and artist communities. I would like to start showcasing some people's concept art for example, but I don't know where to start with that kind of thing yet.

[@brnecessities3335]

As your following grows you can probably mention either in a video, tagged post, or on social media that you want to share some people’s artwork. It would be a good chance for them to gain publicity on a channel where others interested in their type of work would find them.

[@TheSkullywagLab]

@@brnecessities3335 great idea!

[@bigseven8227]

Very interesting video! Do you think you'll make a part 2 to this about what a giant's whole skeleton/body would look like? Like when you mentioned that stumpy feet is expected in larger species.

[@TheSkullywagLab]

I'll move on to postcranial eventually. It's early days for the channel though, and I have lots to put out about skulls for now. But I'm still working out what people would like. If there's an interest in doing open sessions or anything, we could of course chat about postcranial stuff and anything else :)

[@stephenfitzgerald9769]

Pretty good video, sir… I will be subscribing directly!

[@PlainsPup]

It looks like there’s positive allometry of the face, too, ie - the face gets relatively longer in larger, closely related species.

[@thegametroll6264]

Even though I'm over the six foot mark i would still enjoy being a giant. Even though people would eother abuse me or use me for my size i still wouldn't care. I subbed because of this episode because i enjoy giant humanoid creatures of all types.

[@reginaldwooster235]

That skull looks really happy

[@anditwasknownas]

Biology is full of surprises and each species ends up with curious features because each one faces different challenges

[@youtubehandlescostmemyusername]

This video helped with my bad mood about current events. Thanks!

[@ERAA-on-YT]

This is quality content and very good for writers and biologists alike!

[@Guitcad1]

If they have a sagittal crest, that would imply large, powerful jaw muscles. But that would larger cheekbones through which these larger muscles would pass. That should probable be reflected in these constructions. They seem like they had cheekbones of normal proportions, or maybe even a little less.

[@003milo]

Horses have large eyes, as do Giraffes, not to mention the Giant squid has eyes as large as soccer balls. Well those are a few examples of large and giant type creatures having large eyes :)

[@d4darwin458]

Okay this skull talk is awesome 😂 Glad I found the channel

[@VicariousReality]

Makes sense, in addition to the fact that they'd have far larger noses/nostrils and mouths for greater oxygen intake and caloric consumption, respectively. Furthermore, I believe one reason why brain sizes shrink relative to their skulls is the result of evolution trying to protect the species sporting larger craniums: The bigger an animal, the larger a target it is, and thus is far more susceptible to various dangers - be it from other animals or the environment - with less of an ability to hide or otherwise make itself a smaller/more discrete target. Thus, skulls evolve to be even bigger in conjunction with brains becoming smaller to both try and decrease the target that is the brain and better encase/protect it. With that in mind, I also believe that humans could evolve to be giants if environmental conditions warranted it. The most consistent pattern I've seen in terms of what produces the tallest humans, for example, is the space around us - the more space we have, with less that we have to share with others, the more literal elbow room we have to grow, which makes sense to me, as the tallest people on Earth are found in remotely populated areas like the Dinaric Alps, whereas many of the shortest are found in the very densely populated Indonesia. Elevation probably plays a factor in this as well, seeing as how giraffes are so tall due to needing to evolve long necks to reach leaves in very tall trees in the sparsely populated savanna. Therefore, it makes sense to me that human beings could evolve to be giants if, for a long enough period of time, we lived in big open plain areas where nutrition is scarce, high up and unreachable by climbing with limited access to technology to create tools to allow us to easily vertically scale tall, fruit-bearing trees - thus warranting us to evolve long legs to cover greater distances, along with spines and arms to reach said tall fruit trees.

[@MadlyMesozoic]

Love this video, very helpful for projects

[@Granniopteryx]

I should think the more important problem with regard to giants with large heavy non-collapsible lower faces, would be giving birth to them. Assuming that the species remains bipedal, the females would need enormously wide hips which would increase, or rather decrease the Q Angle. Given the increased weight of the gigantic female's torso, such a structure would put tremendous stress on the knees and would not only make walking difficult or impossible but would be constantly prone to irrecoverable injury.

[@spiritinflux]

I am physically, SO HAPPY, that I've found this channel. Endoskeletal vertebrates ftw! ❤‍🔥 You got my sub for life 💀💀💀

[@TheGladGolem]

Thumbs up for Truthful Thumbnail!

[@Necro_fury]

Awesome, but thought u hinted that you were gonna explain the elongation of the fave, bigger jaws etc. Dont remember you mentioning an explaination. Absolutely love ur decor in the background

[@TheSkullywagLab]

Thanks! Yep - I'll cover a lot of this in the next Skull Science video. It'll hopefully be done this week 💀

[@Necro_fury]

@@TheSkullywagLab face* not fave

[@zao7035]

May the benevolent algorithm bless your works.

[@Libertaro-i2u]

One thing is certain, beyond a height of 2.4m/2.6yd/8ft, the humanoid format ceases to be practical unless such creatures had lower bone densities. This is because when something is doubled in outward size, the volume and thus mass increases 8 fold via the square -cube law.

[@Convoy00X]

That's assuming a giant's physiology is identical to a human's. It's entirely possible giant bones are much denser than human bones, or I have a totally different compensation.

[@DogDogGodFog]

They wouldn't just be taller, they would also be wider. Obviously.

[@MachineMan-mj4gj]

The Norse used to accredit magical superweapons to giants, so them being smart should have been a given.

[@Italian_Isaac_Clarke]

Dolphins and Elephants have brains a little larger than ours, but theirs are shaped differently, mainly for their way to move and for their communication needs (also dolphins use echolocation). Also their brains have less neurons in the Grey Matter, while having more connecting different parts of the brain. More about this can be found online pretty easily.

[@laughingmask3118]

Okay i fuckin loved this video ngl

[@BouncingTribbles]

Here for RPG art reference. Great work.

[@marcusmoonstein242]

As an avid video game player, you've just described the giants in the game Skyrim. They're about 10 feet / 3 meters tall with relatively small heads and eyes, thick legs with large feet, and a characteristic lumbering gait.

[@thiagobaquero3925]

soooo, Ron Pearlman and Jay Leno are dwarf giants?

[@TheSkullywagLab]

😂 Ronny P is a giant in so many ways! Will 💯watch anything he's in

[@Goblin_deez.]

That skull on the thumbnail looks hella like a Titan

[@BUZZKILLJRJR]

This is pretty rad love science.

[@ddewittfulton]

Wow! The narration sounds remarkably similar to the Monty Python sketch about giant penguins and their brain sizes.

[@TheSkullywagLab]

Wow - I had to check what you meant and just found it. That's hilarious 😂

[@verngamesnslop]

So what app what you suggest would be good at morphing your face to a 5 meters tall giant?

[@theastrogoth8624]

Neoteny covers all you have said in this video.

[@TheSkullywagLab]

Neoteny would be a reverse pattern. Neotenic giants would look like enormous children, which would be hilarious and awesome😆

[@milkiboreasu]

@@TheSkullywagLab i think he was implying humans are neotenic primates(?)

[@motivatedpotato6604]

@@TheSkullywagLab honestly seeing real life giants would be amazing as they'd be basically evolutionarily speaking TRUE "adult" humans, funny to think about, they'd probably look like really tall Neanderthals, they had far more compact and heavy skeletons than we did, perhaps with a little more leg drive if those giants would be elephant sized

[@LucasPatutas]

They giant skull looks like the uncanny valley and I love it

[@CornerTalker]

Grawp really wasn't that bad. Disturbingly, the Patterson film seems to show a sagital ridge.

[@Snarlacc]

I mean it's not all about size but interconnection. Even smaller animals like crows can be more intelligent because of higher neuron density and interconnectivity, so even a bigger brain would not neccessarily mean they would be smarter or think differently if the neuron numbers stayed the same.

[@blast_processing6577]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the _shape_ of the human pelvis prohibits heights over eight feet or so, assuming the rest of the body scaled accordingly, so presumably the pelvis and legs would be very different in a human-like giant as well.

[@anthonypolonkay2681]

Its not as much as a hard ceilimg as you think. The main think is that the hip sockets just have to be more robust to accompdate the exta wieght. And thats bout it.

[@blast_processing6577]

@@anthonypolonkay2681 I'm sure a hypothetical giant would have problems with its joints, but from what I've read the pelvis is not _shaped_ properly to accomodate the extra weight introduced by the Square-Cube Law, assuming the rest of the body scaled accordingly -- and assuming it didn't then a hypothetical giant would be _very_ weak and frail.

[@kendo2377]

Not a doctor or scientist but I guess their hearts and lungs would have to be disproportionately larger to offset gravity and their height. Pumping oxygenated blood from their feet to their hearts would be a real chore. Pin-headed giants with big barrel chests, and skinny arms and legs with big joints. They'd almost look comical.

[@Idntgt]

Hey, I'm new here! Sorry to be offtopic, but couldn't help but notice your choice of decor. Do you, by chance, have a skull stickshift somewhere in your collection? If not, you should consider it. Also, interesting video. Cheers!

[@TheSkullywagLab]

No stickshift yet, unfortunately. But the collection of skull stuff grows daily 😊

[@ryanbrown9165]

Kinda like how the Colossal Titan in AoT has a tiny head with a lot of teeth and big elephant feet

[@bread_wagongrom7839]

awesome video

[@sbfjord]

I once read an article about how the brains of different groups of species scale up. Ex. primate neurons stay the same size with increasing brain size but cetacean neurons increase in size along with their brains, leading to fewer connections per unit volume (if I remember correctly). And I think a raven's brain (walnut-sized) is supposed to be comparable to a chimpanzee brain (orange-sized)? This kind of thing is fascinating, good work on the video!

[@TheSkullywagLab]

@sbfjord interesting! If you remember the article, I would love a read 🤓

[@sbfjord]

@@TheSkullywagLab www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2776484/ It's not the same article and only compares primates and rodents, but it's about the same topic.

[@sbfjord]

@@TheSkullywagLab It seems like my first reply hasn't gone through? Let's try this again: While I could not find the same article I did find a similar one mostly comparing human, primate, and rodent brains. Just search for "PNAS The remarkable, yet not extraordinary, human brain as a scaled-up primate brain and its associated cost." (Copy/Paste advised :P)

[@sbfjord]

Well, I'm a bit confused as to why my replies aren't showing up on the comments page. Hopefully third time's the charm? I managed to find a similar article mostly comparing primate and rodent brains. Just search for "PNAS The remarkable, yet not extraordinary, human brain as a scaled-up primate brain and its associated cost." (Copy/Paste advised :P)

[@carno.5911]

A exception to the smaller eyes rule would be the good old Tyrannosaurus Rex not only were their eyes the biggest of all land animals in general but also among the biggest in relation to skull size with 30 diameter or around the size of a mens fist. It also had the most foreward facing eyes aka best 3D vision of all dinosaurs & known reptiles btw. (which really speaks against the idea of blindnes to motionless objects yeah lol)

[@naamadossantossilva4736]

Have you seen a T-rex?Those eyes are small in their faces. blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZTkvlmqDSEJa4mOObzB94UhQADSs-SWKzzgQzCjoU48PLVutpRR3QEIcFuk4wHt1WBCfu1B63yM1mojoA1aFiz2FBnVfEMB-BqeKlV_d8hDfBoacU66qZiywrcJ5XOlJfHWsO6K17_8h32KfDlptxRMm3tJ2K6ofRv9OIBUxbHI96Z30E9Tp8hBku/s2835/Tyrannofaces%20Cullen%20et%20al.%202023,%20images%20©%20Witton%202023.jpg

[@vincentx2850]

It’s still proportionally small

[@MsOkayAwesome]

Very fun and informative! I watched because I have a semi-giant original character (10 ft/3m tall) and i do have him designed with a larger mouth/jaw than i would for an average man. It does help to visually describe his size. And he's not stupid hahaha You can actually see these design elements in Thanos as well! A great example of an intelligent semi-giant character. His size is very well communicated by his face, even when he's not in a scene with normal sized humans for comparison

[@JohnSmith-nh2te]

Awesome videos subbed

[@AleksoLaĈevalo999]

Giant skulls are very handsome < 3 I like to imagine a giant horse skulls too < 3 Your giantified portrait is a definite lady-winner too, much more beautiful than your actual self which is still neat.

[@phunkracy]

Thats a very nice vid, im leaving a comment for algorithm, cheers mate!

[@genericusername5909]

It was a random event that I didn’t block the channel based on the thumbnail and title. There are mad conspiracy channels going down rabbit holes with content like this. Don’t even allude to them

[@Hornet_Legion]

Giants are fact. Even in modern memory a man 8'11" existed. Is it really so hard to imagine a 9'6" giant like goliath existed? I think not. In the burial mound of castelnau the bones recovered suggested the owner was a giant human anywhere from 10-14 feet in height. If one argues against human size limitations not resulting in larger humans then you would also need to challenge dinosaur size limitations as well.

[@evilcow666]

This has to got be one of the most niche topics i ever seen. I love it

[@oshkeet]

It's come up more often lately as a Christian-science-adjacent shill on social media trying to convince people mythological 'nephilim' (euphemistically called "giants", which itself is a controversial translation) existed by blowing up normal skeletons with photoshop.

[@eurybaric]

Great stuff!

[@Rickluvs]

They have recovered real giant sculls, and you can see how they look

[@petersmythe6462]

Finally someone who actually understands how animals scale instead of just saying "their legs would be tree trunks'

[@doowi1182]

Great video! Mic is a little washed out but your presentation skills are awesome. Subscribed!

[@TheSkullywagLab]

Thanks for the feedback! Any tips for improving audio visuals are appreciated

[@davidsachs4883]

Scaling in the other direction borrowers and Lilliputians should be bigger eyed and bigger skulled. It would also help with the oversized heads on small fairies (although I thought it was to give play figures faces children can see better

[@TheSkullywagLab]

One of my buddies suggested I do fairies next. What my mind conjured up for a scientifically plausible fairy was pretty gross 🤢😆

[@herrakaarme]

@@TheSkullywagLab The head ought to be the smaller one of the issues a fairy would face physiologically. No mammal has six limbs, so where the wings would come from is a big question mark. And how the wings would be powered, especially if the wings aren't true limbs, but some sort of other structures, like in insects. Even if fairies are small and light, the thorax should look quite different compared to humans. Quite gross, like you said. If you were referring to the skull/face, I reckon only extremely emphasized sexual selection in their population genetics would explain looking like miniaturised beautiful humans (possibly with somewhat bigger eyes), assuming their natural environment was so pleasant it allowed it. Unless they were tamed and selectively bred, like dogs.

[@TheSkullywagLab]

@@herrakaarme Bat wings and a keel, coupled with diminutive lower limbs so save on weight. The head might be cute, but the body would be twisted completely out of shape to handle sustained flight and would be unrecognisable as human at all. Actually - maybe something like Dren from Splice, but much smaller with big bug eyes haha

[@BasicallyBaconSandvichIV]

I think it actually looks very good. Especially with some proper world building to back it up. For instance the stereotype of the dumb brutish savage giant might be further spread thanks to this look. Being extra prevalent in larger giants due to the even greater presence of these features. Which can give great opportunities for things like specism, and specisal tensions between giants and humans. And may also effect how humans view smaller creatures as well. Which can be important if humans are the dominant humanoid, as they are in many a world. But you can easily continue and adapt these ideas to suit your own fancy. I do think it works quite well. I'm looking forward to more episodes!

[@hiimdaisy946]

This is interesting and all, but I doubt the eyes would stay small size because of the way human eyes are structured, cause human eyes don't work the same as other animals. Humans use their hands to massage or clean around the eyes when needed so I think would be safer for giants to have big eyes as well. As for the jaw, nose and ears, I think they would stay mostly the same too. Though I think the skull would be smaller though so that to me makes sense. I feel that giants would basically look like eep from the croods.

[@mitchhaelann9215]

The 'giants are dumb' trope comes from a LONG line of comedy and storytelling traditions where the smaller, smarter hero outwits his bigger, stronger enemy. The bigger and more dangerous the enemy, the dumber they are portrayed as. Has actually led to some hurtful moments where people assume I'm unintelligent just because I'm 6'6".

[@JustSomeKittenwithaGun]

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