Re: MNHN SAM 124

["Nick Gardner" <ratites637@hotmail.com>]

Mickey Mortimer wrote:
> And indeed they are lighter than hypothetical similarly sized
> tyrannosaurids.  Though I estimate a 17.4 meter long Spinosaurus to be 
> 12-19
> tons, a 17.4 meter long Tyrannosaurus would be 25 tons.  I used several 
> taxa
> to estimate spinosaurid mass (Ceratosaurus, Eustreptospondylus,
> Piatnitzkysaurus, Yangchuanosaurus), all of which are more lightly built
> than tyrannosaurids.  I have yet to see anyone suggest spinosaurids were
> more lightly built than other megalosauroids/spinosauroids.

I think the idea floating around the internet that spinosaurids were veru 
lightly built stems from _Predatory Dinosaurs Of The World_ where they were 
restored after coelophysids, but if instead they are related to 
megalosauroids, then it makes since for them to be heavier than estimated 
there.



Nick Gardner

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