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New Analysis Shows Dinosaurs Not As Heavy As Previously Believed.
Cognitive Dissident writes "Discovery.com has an article on a new study using computer modeling to estimate the actual amount of flesh needed to cover the skeletons of dinosaurs. Based on a comparison with modern animals, it indicates that these animals could have weighed dramatically less than has been previously estimated. 'A huge Brachiosaur, once thought to weigh 176,370 pounds, is now believed to have weighed 50,706 pounds.' That's only about two-and-a-half times the weight of a modern African elephant. If other evidence can be reconciled with this, many estimates of the ecosystems dinosaurs lived in will also have to be revised."
This write-up gives reasons for doubting that the new technique does show dinosaurs were significantly lighter than previously thought.
Even when talking "sience", there's nothing wrong with using pounds and ounces.
This is a US site, and science-savvy Americans understand both systems of units.
Because the original weights were in kilograms (80,000kg and 23,000kg respectively), and Discovery helpfully converted to the Imperial system for its American audience without properly sourcing the original figures.
When you converted 80,000 kg and 23,000 kg to pounds, it was swell of you to convert 1-2 significant digits to 5. I for one enjoy the round-off noise in the last 3 decimal places - it has premium aesthetic value. I bet those dinos probably thought the same way; losing weight must have been less depressing in terms of losing 2 pounds rather than 0.001%. On second thought, I barely know my own weight to 3 digits...
The masses given equate to 80000 kg and 23000 kg respectively. Or 80 and 23 (metric) tons. Two significant figures. Not more. No doubt those were the numbers originally supplied by the scientists, and the author of TFA converted it to pounds for the typical American reader without understanding how precision works. This happens all the time in the popular press. Clearly you can't estimate the weight of a creature you've never seen to within 1 lb. Your standard human's weight fluctuates by more than that over the course of a day.
I doubt a footprint can give any useful measure of the weight of the animal that made it.
Too many variables. Walking speed and method will influence it, as it affects the impact between foot and soil and the time the foot is pushing down on the soil. Exact original soil content (water content and particle size). How deep the soft layer of soil really was.
10/10 for using the ol' "science is like Religion because they claim to have Truth and banish those who disagree with their Orthodoxy" line in an article about scientists at a major research university up-ending the "orthodoxy" and publishing their "heresey" in a Royal Society publication. I love this kind of irony.
The enemies of Democracy are
> You don't see ten meter-kilograms of torque listed in a technical manual anywhere across the globe, do you?
Nope. The unit is Newton-metres. Now, does anybody want to argue about standardisation of spelling?