The detailed method for estimating the dinosaur’s weight could not only reveal more about this particular dinosaur species, but it also could be used to more accurately estimate the weight of other dinosaurs.
In this case, the technique was used on the world’s most complete remains of the armored plant-eating stegosaur, whose skeleton is a star attraction at the Natural History Museum in London. It lived 150 million years ago.
“These findings identify just how important exceptionally complete specimens like this are for scientific research and collections,” Paul Barrett, lead dinosaur researcher at the museum, said in a press release.
He continued, “Now we know the weight, we can start to find out more about its metabolism, feeding requirements and the growth rates of Stegosaurus. We can also use the same techniques on other complete fossils to find out much more about the wider ecology of dinosaurs.”
Barrett, lead author Charlotte Brassey, and their team first fitted simple shapes to a digital recreation of the dinosaur’s skeleton before calculating volume.
The researchers next converted these results into a body mass using data collected from similar modern animals. They believe their results are as accurate as possible for now because, when compared to figures calculated using the alternative method of measuring leg bone circumference in conjunction with the overall weight of various living animals, the results are in close agreement.
Both techniques produced an estimate of 1600 kg (3,527 pounds) and, combined, are now considered the most accurate way of measuring the body weight from nearly complete fossil skeletons.
Read more at Discovery News
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