|
I've just come back from university, from a lecture
called "Physics for Biologists". There was an interesting example:
Baluchitherium/Indricotherium/Paraceratherium (which name is
correct???) was said to have weighed 30 (metric) tons (sounds very much) and a
minimum femur diameter of 14 cm. "Was this animal able to live on land?" A
relatively simple calculation (involving the elasticity coefficient of bone)
showed that _one leg alone_ was capable of supporting _300_ ton(ne)s, so
that beastie could easily run and probably jump. (The legs are much
straighter than in a recent rhino, but there's no comparison to an elephant or
sauropod.) Implications for Tyrannosaurus???
B-) *partly rhetorical
question...*
|