327
submitted 8 months ago by lautan@lemmy.ca to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world
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[-] xantoxis@lemmy.world 117 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

FOH there's no way a graboid is bigger than a sarlacc.

Edit:

OK with some web searchin', I got some rough guesses as to the size of each one (spoilers: OP's chart is so far off it's probably a troll):

  • Graboid. They fit in a flatbed truck bed. The Tremors wiki puts them at 9m long and 2m wide, making them approximately 2 rhinos big.
  • Beetlejuice sandworm. There's an amusing behind-the-scenes photo of the set construction for the sandworm scene, which has a model sandworm next to a model door, the door they step out of when they try to leave the house. The sandworm's visible body is perhaps 2x the height of the door, and most of it is underground. Figuring a 2m door height, we can estimate this guy is about 20m long. Not something you want to meet in the dark, but only about 4-8 rhinos big.
  • Sarlacc. A real big boy, about 100m in length, unknown average diameter but the artists' depictions I've seen make it look like roughly 30-50m in circumference, or about 12-16m in diameter. Probably 400 rhinos big.
  • Shai Hulud. One of these things eats an entire spice harvester in one bite. Basically doesn't even belong on this chart unless this is a log scale, these guys are 15-25 meters in diameter, big enough to eat the flatbed truck and the graboid without even noticing it swallowed them. Probably a mile or more in length. Given the current state of the rhino population, a Shai Hulud almost certainly outweighs all rhinos put together.

It should be noted that while the sarlacc's diameter seems to put it in punching range of the shai hulud, two things really set the Dune sandworms apart:

  1. Basic biology math. The mass of the creature increases with the cube of the diameter, so a ~2x increase in diameter for the shai hulud translates into a mass ratio of 8x.
  2. Length. Shai Hulud are much more wormlike than Sarlaccs. That means they're far, far longer relative to their diameter.

Put these together and you can be pretty sure that a sarlacc to a dune sandworm is like a puppy.

EDIT 2:

I am pleasantly surprised to learn that some species of rhino have many thousands of individuals. I believe they would, in fact, outweigh a single Shai-Hulud.

[-] Rekonok@sh.itjust.works 17 points 8 months ago

Thank you for your service

[-] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 11 points 8 months ago

Good work, researcher!

[-] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago

In the far future, "Our time scientists discovered debates about worm sizes. The basic unit for worm measurement was a rhino." ... "What is 'a rhino's?" ... "We are unsure still. But they didn't have many."

[-] NoSpiritAnimal@lemmy.world 100 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Everything about this is wrong.

  • Graboids are the smallest, maxing out at 10 meters in length.
  • The Sarlaac pit is just the mouth. The actual Sarlaac is 100 meters long
  • The Beetlejuice Sandworm has a head slightly larger than an average door, so about 1 meter wide.
  • Shai Hulud get up to 1000 meters in length (pre-Brian Herbert Lore) and around 40-50 meters wide.
[-] TheControlled@lemmy.world 16 points 8 months ago
[-] thatirishguyyy@lemmy.today 7 points 8 months ago

Right? I came here to angry comment and seen I wasn't alone.

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Lisan Al-gaib!

[-] Noite_Etion@lemmy.world 52 points 8 months ago

Graboids are not that big, they can fit on a flat bed trailer.

[-] BoxerDevil@lemmy.world 48 points 8 months ago

Really I think the scale is off. Dune's sand worms are massive

[-] FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 34 points 8 months ago

Also feels like you could fit a flat bed trailer inside of the Sarlac Pit with ease, right?

[-] Squorlple@lemmy.world 21 points 8 months ago

Where is the Alaskan Bull Worm?

[-] Mok98@feddit.it 13 points 8 months ago

Considering that in a picture I found on the spongebob wiki the alaskan bull worm is five Sandys in height, and that the american red squirrel with tail is long from 25 to 35 cm according to wikipedia, with the tail almost as long as the body, I can approximate Sandy as being 15cm tall. Therefore the alaskan bull worm is approximately 75 cm in diameter, (30 in. in stupid units) putting it first in the line as the smallest

[-] Maestro@fedia.io 18 points 8 months ago

This is waaay off. Also missing the D&D purple worm...

[-] JacobCoffinWrites@slrpnk.net 4 points 8 months ago

And the ones from trigun

[-] NeroC_Bass@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 8 months ago

The worm in beetlejuice is simply called a Sandworm

[-] EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Wait a second there, there was no beetle juice in Beetlejuice

[-] Eldritch@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

Sandworms of Saturn

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago

So, the sarlacc. The bits of it we see in the movies, are its mouth (the pit with the spiky stuff,) and its (apparently beaked) tongue.

The sarlacc is probably quite a bit larger. (Maybe not dune sand worm big.)

[-] EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works 2 points 8 months ago

How do sarlaccs multiply? They are not very mobile, so I assume some sort of pollen/spore situation. So it's "mouth" might also be it's genitals

[-] entropicdrift 2 points 8 months ago

The wiki says spores. Good guess!

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

I dunno. I’d have to either be spores or parthenogenesis. Given their size they can’t be that common,

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 8 months ago

I would guess it's exactly Dune sandworm big, in that it's taken from Dune directly. Almost certainly it started as the same creature.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

I’d say not, because they’re apparently large enough that a Krayt dragon can fit into the cavity left behind after eating one. That thing was maybe not as long as a sandstorm, but definitely as chubby

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 8 months ago

Well, that's information made up after they appeared on screen first. I guess it depends on what we're talking about. Talking about the very first appearance, just a mouth in the sand, that's 100% a Dune sandworm with a different name. Some time after that more detail was added to the world that differentiated it from that.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Last I checked Sandworms didn’t have:

  • a tongue, beaked or otherwise,
  • a bunch of tentacles that could grab and pull food in
  • an apparent inability to move

If you’re going to generalize that much, to say they’re the same… does it really matter? It’s not like Herbert didn’t add to sandworm cannon either; so further explanations to what a sarlacc even is shouldn’t be discounted either.

I wouldn’t even call a sarlacc a worm, to be honest.

[-] dudinax@programming.dev 8 points 8 months ago

No alaskan bull worm?

[-] AeroRake@lemm.ee 7 points 8 months ago

Could add the Exogorth from The Empire Strikes Back. That thing was massive.

[-] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 8 months ago

Where Krayt dragon?

[-] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago
[-] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 8 months ago

I’m curious as to the comparison of the No Man’s Sky sandworm.

It’s a BEEEEG boi.

[-] FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 2 points 8 months ago

Must be a height chart...?

[-] db2@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

No, is a small specimen. Only 125 meters long.

[-] FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 0 points 8 months ago

Yeah but the chart might show how far above ground they go, which would make a lot more sense in that case. Because Sarlac is very low to the ground.

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 2 points 8 months ago

I think the Saturn Sand Worm was a good change to the original flying clocks in an empty void idea.

[-] ekZepp@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago
this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2024
327 points (86.7% liked)

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