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@article{Bates:2015:10.1098/rsbl.2015.0215,
author = {Bates, KT and Falkingham, PL and Macaulay, S and Brassey, C and Maidment, SCR},
doi = {10.1098/rsbl.2015.0215},
journal = {Biology Letters},
title = {Downsizing a giant: re-evaluating Dreadnoughtus body mass},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0215},
volume = {11},
year = {2015}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - Estimates of body mass often represent the founding assumption on which biomechanicaland macroevolutionary hypotheses are based. Recently, a scalingequation was applied to a newly discovered titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur(Dreadnoughtus), yielding a 59 300 kg body mass estimate for this animal.Herein, we use a modelling approach to examine the plausibility of this massestimate for Dreadnoughtus. We find that 59 300 kg for Dreadnoughtus ishighly implausible and demonstrate that masses above 40 000 kg requirehigh body densities and expansions of soft tissue volume outside the skeletonseveral times greater than found in living quadrupedal mammals. Similarresults from a small sample of other archosaurs suggests that lower-end massestimates derived from scaling equations are most plausible for Dreadnoughtus,based on existing volumetric and density data from extant animals. Althoughvolumetric models appear to more tightly constrain dinosaur body mass, thereremains a clear need to further support these models with more exhaustive datafrom living animals. The relative and absolute discrepancies in mass predictionsbetween volumetric models and scaling equations also indicate aneed to systematically compare predictions across a wide size and taxonomicrange to better inform studies of dinosaur body size.
AU - Bates,KT
AU - Falkingham,PL
AU - Macaulay,S
AU - Brassey,C
AU - Maidment,SCR
DO - 10.1098/rsbl.2015.0215
PY - 2015///
SN - 1744-957X
TI - Downsizing a giant: re-evaluating Dreadnoughtus body mass
T2 - Biology Letters
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0215
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/26243
VL - 11
ER -