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BY JIM FLINK
ANCHOR LAUREN GORES
Dinosaurs on a diet? Not really. But the latest research indicates, Triceratops
may not have had the thunderous thighs we once believed.
Here’s TG Daily.
“University of Manchester biologists used lasers to measure the minimum amount of skin
required to cover the skeletons of modern-day mammals, including reindeer, polar bears,
giraffes and elephants … And they found that in each case the animals had almost exactly
21 percent more body mass than the bare minimum 'skin and bone'.”
Extrapolating that to dinosaurs, turns out, scientists think we’ve been over-guessing
dinos’ weights by as much as 70 percent. Discover Magazine notes, it’s all in how
you measure it.
“You can compare the lengths of certain bones with those of known animals, assume
that its mass scales accordingly....it can be unreliable. The alternative is the volumetric
approach: you draw an outline of its body, estimate how much volume it took up, and multiply
that with its predicted density...(which) is both subjective and laborious.”
Scientist Williams Sellers and his Manchester University team -- took a third – and different
– approach. They scanned an entire skeleton, stretching
a virtual skin over the outline as tightly as possible.
Here are the scientists’ findings – posted in the journal Biology Letters – with the
methodology.
“This has the advantage of requiring minimal user intervention and is thus more objective
and far quicker ... it is a robust method of estimating body mass where a mounted skeletal
reconstruction is available...”
That being one giant Brachiosaur at a German museum. Problem is, there aren’t a lot of
fully intact dinos at scientists’ disposal. Hence, the old method of reconstruction, courtesy
Discovery.
“While it looks a little like old-school clay-mation, this technique is actually rebuilding
the animals muscles and skin. A winking glass eye and bristles suggesting early feathers
complete the Gumby look.”
The researchers point out, not all dinosaurs would be subjected to the same proportion
of “weight loss.” Still ZME Science notes, this study suggests
all dinos were likely significantly lighter than previous estimates.
“These new findings, might forever change the way dinosaurs are depicted in school books,
museums and other recreations. However, for this method to retrieve the mass of an animal,
it needs a complete skeleton. The Berlin Brachiosaurus ... was chosen for the study as it is one
of the most complete dinosaur fossil specimens available.”
(SOC)
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