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Dinosaurs lighter than previously thought
by Staff Writers
Manchester UK (SPX) Jun 12, 2012



They discovered that the animals had almost exactly 21% more body mass than the minimum skeletal 'skin and bone' wrap volume, and applied this to a giant Brachiosaur skeleton in Berlin's Museum fur Naturkunde.

Previous estimates of this Brachiosaur's weight have varied, with estimates as high as 80 tonnes, but the Manchester team's calculations - published in the journal Biology Letters - reduced that figure to just 23 tonnes. The team says the new technique will apply to all dinosaur weight measurements.



Dr Sellers, based in Manchester's Faculty of Life Sciences, explained that body mass was a critical parameter used to constrain biomechanical and physiological traits of organisms.




"The value we got for Giraffatitan is at the low range of previous estimates; although it is still huge, some of the enormous estimates of the past - 80 tonnes in 1962 - are exaggerated. Our method provides a much more accurate measure and shows dinosaurs, while still huge, are not as big as previously thought."


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Reign of the giant insects ended with the evolution of birds
Santa Cruz CA (SPX) Jun 12, 2012
Giant insects ruled the prehistoric skies during periods when Earth's atmosphere was rich in oxygen. Then came the birds. After the evolution of birds about 150 million years ago, insects got smaller despite rising oxygen levels, according to a new study by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Insects reached their biggest sizes about 300 million years ago during the lat ... read more

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