By combining 3-D modeling of a near - gross skeleton with a more traditional free weight - figure technique , researchers have now uncover the weight of one of our most beloved dinosaurs . Turns out , a new adultStegosaurusweighs about the same as a small rhinoceros . Thefindingswere published inBiology Lettersthis hebdomad .
There are a few ways to reckon how much an fauna weighs based on just its weather bone . One method is to look at the relationship between the mass and leg pearl circuit of mod animals to then approximate the peck of out ones . An option is to create 3D computer models to get at a volume estimate . For theStegosaurus , however , these two techniques antecedently come up with very dissimilar masses .
Now , a U.K. trey lead byCharlotte Brassey from the Natural History Museumin London applied both techniques to an 80 - percent - terminated systema skeletale of a 150 - million - twelvemonth - oldStegosaurus stenopsunearthed from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation near Shell , Wyoming . Nicknamed Sophie , the specimen is overleap just the left forelimb and part of the buttocks . “ Because this unbelievable specimen is so everlasting , we have been able to make a3D digital example of the whole fossil and each of its 360 clappers , which we can research in excellent detail without using any of the original bones , ” Brassey says in anews release .
Using the 3D framework , the team go shapes around the bones to count on the stego ’s torso intensity , and then they converted that figure to mass using estimates free-base on animals alive today . Finally , they compared these result to the method acting using stage os perimeter .
Both technique fit , they feel , once the age of the animal was taken into account . Initially , the method using pegleg osseous tissue circumference provided a result that ’s nearly twice that of the 3D model estimate — but that ’s because Sophie was a juvenile when it die , and its limbs were growing faster than the overall body .
Their stopping point : A young adultStegosaurusweighed 1,560 kilo ( over 3,400 hammering ) when it was alive .
With this new weight unit estimation , researcher can seek to answer more questions about how the stego go . " If we need to judge how fast an animal runs , you need body mass,”Brassey severalize the BBC . “ If you require to say something about their metabolism , you need to cognise their body mass . ” And of class , it also assist to clarify body type . “ The main muscular tissue that would be used to pull the hind limbs back would have been reasonably bombastic and would have confiscate quite far down the tail,”she adds . “ Combined with its wide-cut hips , it ’s fair to say thisStegosaurusprobably would have had quite a large rear end . ”
Here are reconstructions ofStegosaurus stenops . Their preferred modeling is c and d :
Images : Natural History Museum ( top ) , 2015 C.A. Brassey et al . , Royal Society ( middle )
