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Ophthalmosaurus icenicus vertebra


DE&i

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@paulgdls is it possible to best guesstimate the size of a Ophthalmosaurus icenicus from just  one solitary anterior caudal vertebra.

 

Height 10 cms 

IMG_20210406_172742.thumb.jpg.623aebf5975ef7f7fefa943f2636c68c.jpg

 

Width 10.5 cmsIMG_20210406_172642.thumb.jpg.f995117f1db4a717994926c41c7fccfa.jpg

 

Length measured at the neural canal 3 cms

OI000006_29367220878851_edit_29754591778271.thumb.jpg.c514b78e63e8d0efcb78ac3650ca3ce9.jpg

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Regards.....D&E&i

The only certainty with fossil hunting is the uncertainty.

https://lnk.bio/Darren.Withers

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Yes, that is about as big as they get and equates to 5 - 6 metres long. The uncrushed length would be about 4cm. 

 

 

 

Edited by paulgdls
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 4/6/2021 at 6:47 PM, paulgdls said:

Yes, that is about as big as they get and equates to 5 - 6 metres long. The uncrushed length would be about 4cm.

 

Just for my information, as I've got a couple of Ophthalmosaurus vertebrae in my collection too: is there any formula that can be applied to these calculations, or is this simply something based on experience?

'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett

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It's only an approximate figure based on comparing the size of late dorsal vertebrae with the length of the animal in the ground. Approx. length of animal in metres = width of the maximum size vertebral centrum * 0.52. So an 8 cm wide centrum equates to an animal 4.2m long. This is for uncrushed centra. Crushing increases the width somewhat, say 10% for 30 % crushing. 

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Thanks, Paul! I understand the approximate nature of these measurements - in fact, these kind of measurements are very similarly approximations when trying to reconstruct dimensions from human remains (I studied physical anthropology as box of my archaeological studies), with many authors providing slightly different formulas - but they generally provided useful indications all the same :) Is this formula applicable to other species of ichthyosaur as well, or just Ophthalmosaurus? Also, referring back to my experience with size reconstruction from human skeletal remains, where differences in formulae in part derive from them being based off of different source populations: would you know whether the same is true for the formulas you provided? That is, does this formula differ depending on geological age and region?

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'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett

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This was only for Ophthalmosaurus icenicus. I think its a reasonable approximation for Ichthyosaurus sp. as well. For Temnodontosarus I would change the multiplier to 0.7 and for Shonisaurus 1. 

 

regards

 

Paul

 

 

Edited by paulgdls
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Cool! Thanks, Paul!

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'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett

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