I am wondering if it would be possible for a ruminant to grow as large as some of the largest land mammals to have lived. If it is not possible, one of the constraints might be the functionality of such a large rumen. Or what other factors are there to consider as well?
Michael Buchwitz
There is a paper by Clauss et al. (2003) about body size limitations in living and fossil ruminants:
http://scholar.google.de/scholar?cluster=4975381757779853727&hl=de&as_sdt=0,5
http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/133/1332029763.pdf
They find only one fossil group possibly surpassing maximum body size in extant ruminants of about 1000 kg: sivatheriine giraffids.
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