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Sorry for the slow reply - have mostly been away the last couple days.

This entire topic of how to explain the larger dinosaurs’ size is VERY interesting to me. I tend to dismiss the Jupiter / Saturn / much different planetary System explanation because virtually all the available evidence flies against it. For one thing, even Jupiter is not big enough to actually become even a weak star. Even if that is incorrect, then you have the paradox of Earth being so close to Jupiter as to cause drastically lower gravity on the Jupiter-facing side of Earth (relatively a greater effect than what Mercury sees from the much more massive Sun), and the “star” Jupiter is producing sufficient light to grow plants on Earth (like crazy), yet this practically “right on top of us” white-hot oven is not roasting the Earth.

Maybe some non-fusion source of the light “works” in this “design”, but none such has ever been observed, that I know of.

Then there is the problem of how you get from that old Jupiter - Saturn System to what we have today. The orbital mechanics just don’t work out...

The “very dense atmosphere Earth” hypothesis seems a bit more likely. However, there were plenty of “2018-size” flying insects (as well as larger versions) in the era of the dinosaurs, and I’ve never heard or read that those insects were adapted to a very dense atmosphere.

The author at that last link also proposes a FAIRLY dense atmosphere until rather recently, and the core samples simply don’t back that up.

We are left with some fascinating mysteries!