Paleontologists have learned to determine the weight of mammoths and giant sloths

Determine how much weight a modern animal, even if it is as big as an elephant or a whale - is quite simple. But when it comes to the ancient animals, everything becomes more difficult. However, the experts were able to develop a highly accurate method for determining the mass of a body of ancient mammals (yes, while only mammals).

The technique has already been tested on the example of woolly mammoths and giant sloths (yes, the same ones that dug huge holes in the ground ). The results of research, scientists have published in the journal Royal Society Open Science .

Method of hi-tech paleontologists is 3D scanning fossils, skeletons of extinct animals, after which a special algorithm calculates the approximate size and weight of the animal's body, in comparison with indicators of living mammals. Now the program to simulate the volume of the body and the body weight proschityvaniya ancient animal uses 14 characteristics of living mammals. The database includes animals such as deer and African elephant.

After the calculations turned out that the woolly mammoth, which examined the experts weighed 3635 kilograms - in such a way to calculate the body weight of the animal can be up to a kilogram. The most interesting - is the weight of an ancient giant sloth. As it turned out, one of the representatives of this species weighed about 3705 kilograms.

As is known, mammoths lived in the north (near present day Siberia), and became extinct thousands of years ago. Sloths also reached about 6 meters long, they lived in North America. At the same time the animals became extinct 10,000 years ago. Perhaps one of the key factors that led to the extinction of both mammoths and sloths, are people.

Source: geektimes.ru/post/260524/