Dinosaurs not as massive as we thought?

[Lazar]

From the Daily Mail:

'Palaeontologists have for 25 years used a published statistical model to estimate body weight of giant dinosaurs and other extraordinarily large animals in extinct lineages,' said lead researcher Dr Gary Packard from Colorado State University in the US.

'By re-examining data in the original reference sample, we show that the statistical model is seriously flawed and that the giant dinosaurs probably were only about half as heavy as is generally believed.'

[IanKennedy]

Typical of the Daily Mail they've completely misunderstood the concept. They seem to think that they've got the size of the dinosaurs wrong. Given we have their bones that can't be the case. It's simply the mass that's potentially wrong. They are just as big, just not as heavy.

[Nickswitz]

I actually understood what they meant. IDK if that's good or bad.

[Lazar]

Typical of the Daily Mail they've completely misunderstood the concept. They seem to think that they've got the size of the dinosaurs wrong. Given we have their bones that can't be the case. It's simply the mass that's potentially wrong. They are just as big, just not as heavy.

Yeah, the way they've presented it does seem a bit off, as if the dinosaurs are now going to be shorter or something. I tried to get it from another newspaper, but the Daily Mail was all I could find.

[stitch626]

So basically, they were not as fat? I can see that. Considering we don't have a living model.

[Lazar]

Yes, it's a question of how much flesh was on the bones.

[Sionnach Glic]

Makes sense when you think about it. A T-Rex would need to eat a fuckload of food to have any good amount of meat on its bones. It's quite likely the larger the dinosaurs got, the thinner they were.

[McAvoy]

So no pot belly T-Rex from Jurassic Park?

Well, wouldn't that mean with less mass they might be a bit faster as well?

[Nickswitz]

Maybe, but there is still only a certain speed their bodies can carry them.

[Sionnach Glic]

Aye, and we can aproximate their speed by studying their skeletons.

[Tsukiyumi]

Aye, and we can aproximate their speed by studying their skeletons.

Wouldn't that estimate change a bit depending on how much mass they're lugging around? If they're all lean running machines, the speed estimates have to go up a bit.

[Sionnach Glic]

Aye, they will. I was saying we can still calc their speeds, just now it's a revised edition. Sorry if I wasn't too clear.

[Sionnach Glic]

So no pot belly T-Rex from Jurassic Park?

Actualy, that probably was realistic, just unintentionaly so. That Tyrannosaur has been bred and kept in captivity, probably kept well fed, and with no reason to hunt (and thus exercise). Thus it's quite likely such a creature would get fattened up fairly quickly.

[Tsukiyumi]

Aye, they will. I was saying we can still calc their speeds, just now it's a revised edition. Sorry if I wasn't too clear.

Ah, okay. The amount of stress the skeleton could withstand is the same, but with less mass, the top speed goes up. Gotcha.

[Teaos]

I cant see how they could have gotten it so wrong, from what I understand it is rather easy to work out how much flesh is anchored to a skeleton by looking at the anchor points.