If this is the case, then I should consider that my conrace could develop flight artificial flight technology...Salmoneus wrote:Some things about a denser atmosphere:
- yes, I'd think that winds would be more sluggish
- heat will be distributed more efficiently - the poles will be warmer, the equator will be colder, nights will be warmer, days will be colder
- because of the last, there won't be as violent weather systems (which tend to stem from steep temperature differentials). There will be fewer hurricanes, and less wind in general. This will probably multiply with the first observation
- flight will be easier. Larger creatures will be able to fly, and larger creatures will be able to fly well and rapidly. Humans are likely to invent human-powered flight (which is on the edge of possibility as it is), though not for long distances
- floating in the air will be easier. In the long term that's good news for balloons, but biologically it'll also probably mean more aerial seed dispersal, which may encourage taller trees and fewer fruits
- wind resistance will be higher. Things will be slower, both airborne and on the ground
- everything other than flying will be harder. Things will have to move around less, or sleep longer, or else eat a lot more food. Herbivores can't really do much on the eating more food front, so they'll tend to be slower, which will probably mean they'll either haver to be a lot more numerous to not go extinct (if there's enough of you it doesn't matter if you get eaten a lot), or else they'll become bigger (if you're big enough, it doesn't matter if things can catch up with you). In turn, predators will tend to be bigger, but there'll be fewer endurance predators like humans and wolves, and more things will try to have long periods of idleness punctuated by brief periods of activity (i.e. ambush predators) - bad news for dogs, good news for cats. It'll also be a lot more tempting to be a scavenger. Some of the biggest carnivores will probably be scavengers (particularly since they'll probably have to compete with megacondors).
and would this dense atmosphere have a great impact on semi-shadow creatures?