Charlotte is a BBSRC Future Leader Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University. Charlotte’s research focuses on animal biomechanics and functional morphology. For her fellowship, Charlotte is currently studying the form and function of the mammalian baculum (penis bone). After gaining her undergraduate degree in Geography and Geology at the University of Manchester, Charlotte stayed on to complete a PhD on the biomechanical modelling of long bones. She has also worked as a PDRA at the Natural History Museum, London, where she was part of a team responsible for digitizing and displaying ‘Sophie’ the Stegosaurus.
Patterns in Palaeontology: From giants to dwarfs – Estimating the body mass of extinct species
by Charlotte Brassey1
Introduction
Body mass is so fundamental to an organism that it is often overlooked, yet it has considerable importance in animal biology. It is, quite literally, the amount of matter making up an individual. On a day-to-day basis, we encounter values for body mass as we step onto our bathroom scales and are encouraged to maintain a healthy weight (not too heavy or too light). Veterinarians are interested in body mass for much the same reason: the weight of an animal can provide an indication of its health and is commonly used to plan medical treatments. Body mass is also tied to an animal’s physiology (including speed of metabolism and length of pregnancy), ecology (diet, home-range size) and behaviour (social status, aggression). For these reasons, zoologists are ...