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Estimating the body mass of large animals

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Estimating the body mass of large animals

Name:Personal
Rader, Jonathan Role :Text(marcrelator)
creator

Name:Personal
Breithaupt, Brent Role :Text(marcrelator)
contributor

typeOfResource
still image genre
Origin Information Place
Laramie, Wyoming
University of Wyoming (keyDate="yes")
2009-05-15

Language:Text
eng

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born digtal

abstract
Body mass is an intrinsic property of all animals that is intimately related with their anatomical and physiological form and function. The body mass of extinct animals cannot be measured directly. Therefore, modeling is a valuable tool in the study of large animal mass, biomechanics, and physiology. A previous study employed a physical modeling technique and two mathematical techniques from the literature to estimate the en-vivo mass of a sauropod dinosaur, Apatosaurus excelsus, based upon the University of Wyoming specimen (UW 15556). The physical model produced an estimate of ~13,500 kg, in contrast to the estimate produced by both mathematical models of ~16,900 kg. Resolving the observed disparity among the results produced by these methods is vital to future studies requiring valid mass estimates. This can be accomplished by estimating the mass of individual large extant animals, and comparing to their known mass values. Estimates of the body mass of zoo-housed individuals from two extant taxa, the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), along with their recorded mass, provide the basis for such a comparison. This ongoing study may provide valuable information to improve future mass estimates as well as other work based upon them. note
From - Undergraduate Research Day 2009 - Celebration of Research - Abstracts
Subject
Body mass estimation

Subject
extinct animals

Related Item:series Title Information
Undergrauate Research Day 2009

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http://digital.uwyo.edu/copyright.htm
Record Information languageOfCataloging :Text(ISO639-2B)
English :Code(ISO639-2B)
eng