Brachiosaurus

CONTINUE





Although giant Brachiosaurus, which is considered one of the largest animals ever existed on our planet, yet was less imposing than we imagined. According to the new method of calculation, published in the journal "Biology Letters" of the Royal Society, his weight was "only" 23 tons. For comparison, the big elephant - the African savanna elephant weigh 7 tons, the blue whale - 120 tons.
Brachiosaurus, which was herbivore, was 25 meters long. In the past they were made many assumptions about weight, most of which are about 40 tons, and in the 60 years of the 20th century, some estimates have been moving up to 80 tons.
A team of biologists has developed a new technique for accurate assessment of the weight of the dinosaurs. The scientists used lasers to measure the minimum amount of skin needed to "wrap" as extensible skeletons of modern movie mammals (bison, bull, camel, elephant, giraffe, horse, rhino, polar bear ...) They have established a link between the volume skin and bones for "envelopment" and weight of the animal. Then biologists applied their mathematical model to the largest dinosaur skeleton in the world Brachiosaurus brancai at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin. They calculated that the weight of the animal was 23 tons, which is much less than previous estimates.
The new method is completely objective, as the main author of the study Bill Sellers of Manchester University, who points out that body weight is a very important parameter for biologists. "Our results suggest that many previous assessments (all dinosaurs) are really too great weight, said Professor Sellars. Many dinosaurs for the difference is not as great as in the brachiosaurus, but probably conjecture for less weight are more loyal, "says the scientist.