Body mass

Body mass is the mass of an organism. In living organisms it can be measured directly, while fossil body mass is often estimated from skeletal dimensions.

Allometric scaling: A relationship in which a biological trait scales with body size according to a power law. Scaling laws connect measurable bones to body mass across differently sized animals.
Dinosaur locomotion: The study of how dinosaurs moved, including their gait, speed, and mechanical limits. Estimated mass constrains the forces dinosaur limbs had to withstand during movement.
Argentinosaurus: A giant sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina. Its fragmentary remains have produced widely varying estimates of an exceptionally large dinosaur's mass.
Dinosaur size estimates: Scientific estimates of the dimensions and mass of extinct dinosaurs from fossil evidence. Competing methods and incomplete remains make giant dinosaur masses especially uncertain.
Regression analysis: A statistical method for modeling the relationship between a response variable and one or more predictors. Regressions calibrate skeletal measurements against known body masses in living species.
Metabolic rate: The rate at which an organism uses energy through metabolism. Body mass helps predict energy use, though metabolic rate also depends on physiology and temperature.
Patagotitan: A giant titanosaur sauropod dinosaur discovered in Argentina's Chubut Province. Its relatively extensive fossil material supports estimates among the largest known dinosaur masses.
Fossil record: The preserved evidence of past life found in geological materials. Uneven preservation determines which skeletal measurements can be used to infer mass.
Femur circumference: The distance around the shaft of the femur, used in some methods to estimate the mass an animal could support. Weight-bearing femur dimensions provide a common predictor for fossil mammal and dinosaur mass.
Bergmann's rule: The tendency for populations of endothermic species in colder climates to have larger bodies. Mass records help test whether geographic body-size patterns fit this ecogeographic rule.

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