Dinosaurs may be lighter than previously thought

The skeleton of a Brachiosaurus branchai dinosaur at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin A study by a British university says that dinosaurs may be lighter than previously thought. The University of Manchester is scheduled to launch new research That has found scientists have developed a new technique to accurately measure the weight and size of dinosaurs and discovered they are not as heavy as previously thought. University of Manchester biologists used lasers to measure the minimum amount of skin required to wrap around the skeletons of modern-day mammals, including reindeer, polar bears, giraffes and elephants. They discovered that the animals had almost exactly 21 per cent more body mass than the minimum skeletal ‘skin and bone’ wrap volume, and applied this to a giant Brachiosaur skeleton in Berlin’s Museum für Naturkunde. Previous estimates of this Brachiosaur's weight have varied, with estimates as high as 80 tonnes, but the Manchester team’s calculations – published in the journal Biology Letters – reduced that figure to just 23 tonnes. The team says the new technique will apply to all dinosaur weight measurements