Mass estimations of Dreadnoughtus made last summer were too high, study

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CANADA: A new study has questioned the weight of a giant dinosaur, Dreadnoughtus schrani that was discovered last year in Patagonia. Its weight was estimated to be 60 tons. However, the new study has casted serious doubt on that estimate.
It was believed to have been one of the heaviest land animals ever after paleontologists looked at the dimensions of its leg bones and estimated its weight to be about 60 tons.
However, the new study published on Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters said that Dreadnoughtus likely weighed between 30 and 40 tons.
Study’s lead researcher, Karl Bates, a lecturer of musculoskeletal biology at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom said, “Using digital modeling and a data set that took in species, alive and dead, we were able to see that the creature couldn’t be as large as originally estimated”.
However, Lacovara isn’t convinced. He said that the model used in the new study used the dinosaur’s body volume as a proxy for its mass. Since, scientists have only about 45% of the dinosaur’s skeleton Dreadnoughtus’ total volume is still unknown.