Washington, Oct 13 (ANI): A new study has found that Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the largest carnivores of all time, was actually bigger and grew faster than scientists had estimated.
The researchers, led by Prof John R. Hutchinson of The Royal Veterinary College, London, and Peter Makovicky, PhD, curator of dinosaurs at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, used cutting edge technology to "weigh" models of five T-rex specimens, including The Field Museum's iconic SUE skeleton.
They found that the beast could get to a weight of nine tonnes, 30 percent more than previously thought, and grew twice as fast.
The team used 3D laser scans of mounted skeletons as a template for generating fleshed-out digital models whose masses could then be computed.
Makovicky said this method provided more accuracy than previous methods, which relied on scale models.
The laser scans are accurate to less than half an inch for skeletons those are up to 40 feet long.
Digital body cross-sections were reconstructed along the length of each skeleton using the relationships of the soft tissues to skeletons in birds and crocodiles as a guide.
A digital skin was then overlaid to generate a body volume, whose mass was calculated after empty spaces such as lungs and the mouth cavity were modeled and subtracted.
Calculating the masses of the resulting virtual T. rex herd yielded some exciting surprises.
For instance, T. rex appears to have been significantly heavier than previously believed. The Field Museum's SUE skeleton, which is the largest and most complete T. rex skeleton known, weighed in at over nine tonnes.
"We knew she was big but the 30 percent increase in her weight was unexpected," says Makovicky.
SUE was also larger than the other specimens when individual body segments were compared, but Makovicky is not surprised by that result.
"We often hear about new T. rex discoveries that rival SUE in some select measurement, but body size is a three-dimensional parameter and SUE is much more robust than other known skeletons," he says.
The new mass estimates also alter understanding of T. rex biology. The higher mass estimates for the larger specimens and a lower one for the smallest individual indicate even faster growth than was proposed in a landmark study just five years ago.he study is published in current issue of PLoS One. (ANI)
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