Bone and Weight

Some dinosaurs were really huge. And now we may have a better way to [estimate:monitor] just how heavy these giants were. Researchers have developed a method to weigh dinosaurs, based on laser scans of their skeletons. The study is in the journal Biology Letters.Looking at a bare human skeleton, how would you guess whether its owner was chubby or svelte? If you calculated how much space the fully-fleshed body occupied, you could [multiply:define] that volume by tissue density to find the weight.Researchers laser-scanned 14 modern mammal skeletons to create digital models of each body. These 3-D models were unrealistically scrawny, with skin [stretched:marked] tight over the bones. But their undersized volumes were consistent, measuring in as 21 percent less than the actual animals.Based on this information, the [researchers:students] scanned Giraffatitan bones, added 21 percent to the digital model's volume and then calculated the dinosaur's weight: about 51,000 pounds. The technique could become the [preferred:defined] way to estimate mass based on skeletons, improving our understanding of how extinct species lived and moved. And helping paleontologists make earth-shaking discoveries.