Dinosaurs May Have Been More Svelte Than Thought

THURSDAY, June 7 (HealthDay News) -- Dinosaurs may have been lighter than previously thought, according to scientists who used a new technique to assess the weight and size of one of the ancient creatures.

The biologists at the University of Manchester, in England, used lasers to measure the amount of skin required to cover the skeletons of 14 large modern-day mammals such as elephants, giraffes and polar bears. They found a consistent ratio of skin volume to body mass (weight).

They used a similar technique on a skeleton of a giant plant-eating Brachiosaur in a Berlin museum -- calculating skin volume and using that to predict weight. Previous estimates of this particular specimen's weight have varied, with some as high as 88 tons. But this new technique suggests the animal weighed "just" 25 tons (50,000 pounds).


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Hmmm.....25 tons instead of 88 tons would make sex much less...backbreaking.