The Apatosaurus (formerly known as the brontosaurus), a Sauropod, is one of the most popular dinosaurs in Hollywood and among children. Part of the dinosaur's popularity may be related to its immense size, and researchers are scrambling to learn more about the giant beast.
"It is essential to explore the topic in modern animals! Sauropods undoubtedly serve as the backdrop to better understand our modern world, and can help us learn which questions about modern animals haven't even been asked yet," the Plos One (where the study was published) blog, stated.
The researchers reconstructed Sauropod skeletons in hopes of learning more about the ancient behemoths. They also compared key similarities and differences between the Sauropods and modern animals such as elephants. The team included a mix of "DNA analysis, 3-D imaging and computer modeling" in the study, the Huffington Post reported.
The largest-known Sauropod, the diplodocus, weighed a whopping 80 tons, the BBC reported.
Professor Kent Stevens from the University of Oregon hoped to discover if these giant dinosaurs were able to hold their heads up straight or "out the front."
"Let the bones tell the story," Stevens said. He believes the dinosaurs would not have had the neck flexibility to lift their heads high above their bodies. The researcher does believe the Apatosaurus could place its head along an "enormous feeding surface."
"By identifying the most critical variables, it is possible to both explain modern biological systems as well as infer the behavior of prehistoric ones. Although we may never know the exact details of sauropod biology, the research presented here goes a long way towards marking those boundaries of biological probability. Not too bad for animals that have been dead for over 65 million years," the Plos One blog reported.
The giant Argentinosaurus recently had its skeleton scanned, and through advanced technology researchers were able to digitally recreate how the dinosaur walked, a University of Manchester news release reported.
The long-lived study was published in the open acess journal Plos One.
