Mass estimates: North vs South redux

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Mass estimates: North vs South redux

I have good news and bad news - the bad news is today is not the day you get a general estimate of the mass of Spinosaurus. I know, I know, and I'm sorry. Here's the good news - in preparation for a deeper look at the challenges of estimating the mass of Spinosaurus, I've produced far more rigorous mass estimates of Tyrannosaurus and Giganotosaurus from GDI, and I got some surprising results.  Jump below the fold to see who is bigger (and why I think this is so).

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Scaling issues - a minor irritation?

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Scaling issues - a minor irritation?

The Super Spinosaurus? post produced some interesting conversation; in particular Marco asked a good question about whether using the skull of the South American spinosaurid Irritator would have a material impact on the size of the animal. Let's take a quick look at Irritator's skull, and then a broader look at how these sorts of questions do (or don't) impact mass estimates.

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