Thedinosaurs were clearly larger than previously thought, according to a new study by American paleontologists published in the journalPLoS ONE. According to scientists, these animals possessedthick cartilage that could have added about 12 inchesto dinosaurs. The difference in size could haveeffects on the posture of the dinosaurs and the speed of their movements, as concluded by Casey Holliday, from the Ohio University School of Medicine (USA), a co-author of the work. “The end of the long bones of many dinosaurs such as the femur and the tibia is rounded and rough, lacking a condyle, the proper structure of bone joints”, Holliday points out. Therefore, the thick cartilage formed these structures and the joint itself, enlarging the size of some of these reptiles.
For this research,compared joints of ostriches and crocodiles with fossilized limbs of different dinosaurs, including theking Tyrannnosaurus, the Brachiosaurus and the Triceratops. The researchers estimated that the limbs of crocodiles and ostriches contain between 6% and 10% cartilage. After applying “a cartilage correction factor,” Casey Holliday determined thatnumerous theropod dinosaurs such as Tyrannnosaurus rex were therefore slightly larger, while ornithischians and sauropods such as triceratops and brachiosaurus, could have reached a size 10% larger.
