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EARTHDATE: June 28, 2009

Official News page 6


REAL LIFE NEWS: DINOSAURS THINNER THAN WE THOUGHT

by Hazed

Dinosaurs are much slimmer than had been previously thought, say American researchers. They've uncovered a mistake in the mathematics which dinosaur experts use to work out the weight of dinosaurs, and now say that all previous estimates were way over the mark.

"Paleontologists have for 25 years used a published statistical model to estimate body weight of giant dinosaurs. By re-examining data in the original reference sample, we show that the statistical model is seriously flawed," says Gary Packard of Colorado State University.

For example, one of the largest dinosaurs, the Apatosaurus louisae, had its weight overestimated by about 20 tonnes, and the Brachiosaurus was actually 16 tonnes smaller than previously thought.

Wow, this means the CGI dinos in Jurassic Park and its sequels are not as realistic as we imagined.

If you want to read the mathematical details of what went wrong with the original calculations, you'll find them in this story: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/22/dinosaur_weight_revisionism/.


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