Resurrection of Dinosaurs Using Laser Imaging and 3D Computer Modelling
Using the latest laser scanning (LiDAR) and computer modelling methods, Karl Bates and his colleagues from palaeontology and biomechanics research team reconstructed a range of 3D mass models of five specimens of non-avian dinosaur; two near-complete specimens of Tyrannosaurus rex, the most complete specimens of Acrocanthosaurus atokensis and Strutiomimum sedens, and a near-complete skeleton of a sub-adult Edmontosaurus annectens. The mass properties of dinosaurs have been the subject of on-going scientific investigation for over a century, reflecting not only their unique range of body forms but also the fundamental importance of mass properties as morphological, physiological and ecological traits in biological organisms.
The team found that the smaller Museum of the Rockies T. rex could have weighed anywhere between 5.5 and 7 tonnes, while the larger specimen (Stan) might have weighed as much as 8 tonnes.The Strutiomimum sedens, lived alongside T. rex in the late Cretaceous period and probably weighed somewhere between 0.4 – 0.6 tonnes . Edmontosaurus annectens, a plant-eating hadrosaur was based on a juvenile specimen, but still weighed in at between 0.8 – 0.95 tonnes.
“Our technique allows people to see and decide for themselves how fat or thin the dinosaurs might have been in life. You can see the skeleton with a belly. Anyone from a five-year-old to a Professor can see it and say, ‘I think this reconstruction is too fat or too thin’.–Karl Bates
These results can be used to understand the locomotion of dinosaurs ,especially to know how exactly they ran.The authors also measured the body mass of an ostrich, as an existing animal that would show how accurate their technique was, and found the results to be correct.
Reference and Image Credit:
Bates et al. Estimating Mass Properties of Dinosaurs Using Laser Imaging and 3D Computer Modelling. PLoS ONE, 2009; 4 (2): e4532 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004532
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HI
i want to about the 3D modelling/imagimg of flying helmets
for assessment of mass properties
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