Revisiting the estimation of dinosaur growth rates.

Previous growth-rate studies covering 14 dinosaur taxa, as represented by 31 data sets, are critically examined and reanalyzed by using improved statistical techniques. The examination reveals that some previously reported results cannot be replicated by using the methods originally reported; result...

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Autor principal:	Nathan P Myhrvold
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2013
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/bb0c5e2ce9d64871afadd6e64931329c
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:bb0c5e2ce9d64871afadd6e64931329c2021-11-18T08:41:52ZRevisiting the estimation of dinosaur growth rates.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0081917https://doaj.org/article/bb0c5e2ce9d64871afadd6e64931329c2013-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24358133/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Previous growth-rate studies covering 14 dinosaur taxa, as represented by 31 data sets, are critically examined and reanalyzed by using improved statistical techniques. The examination reveals that some previously reported results cannot be replicated by using the methods originally reported; results from new methods are in many cases different, in both the quantitative rates and the qualitative nature of the growth, from results in the prior literature. Asymptotic growth curves, which have been hypothesized to be ubiquitous, are shown to provide best fits for only four of the 14 taxa. Possible reasons for non-asymptotic growth patterns are discussed; they include systematic errors in the age-estimation process and, more likely, a bias toward younger ages among the specimens analyzed. Analysis of the data sets finds that only three taxa include specimens that could be considered skeletally mature (i.e., having attained 90% of maximum body size predicted by asymptotic curve fits), and eleven taxa are quite immature, with the largest specimen having attained less than 62% of predicted asymptotic size. The three taxa that include skeletally mature specimens are included in the four taxa that are best fit by asymptotic curves. The totality of results presented here suggests that previous estimates of both maximum dinosaur growth rates and maximum dinosaur sizes have little statistical support. Suggestions for future research are presented.Nathan P MyhrvoldPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 8, Iss 12, p e81917 (2013)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Nathan P Myhrvold Revisiting the estimation of dinosaur growth rates.
description	Previous growth-rate studies covering 14 dinosaur taxa, as represented by 31 data sets, are critically examined and reanalyzed by using improved statistical techniques. The examination reveals that some previously reported results cannot be replicated by using the methods originally reported; results from new methods are in many cases different, in both the quantitative rates and the qualitative nature of the growth, from results in the prior literature. Asymptotic growth curves, which have been hypothesized to be ubiquitous, are shown to provide best fits for only four of the 14 taxa. Possible reasons for non-asymptotic growth patterns are discussed; they include systematic errors in the age-estimation process and, more likely, a bias toward younger ages among the specimens analyzed. Analysis of the data sets finds that only three taxa include specimens that could be considered skeletally mature (i.e., having attained 90% of maximum body size predicted by asymptotic curve fits), and eleven taxa are quite immature, with the largest specimen having attained less than 62% of predicted asymptotic size. The three taxa that include skeletally mature specimens are included in the four taxa that are best fit by asymptotic curves. The totality of results presented here suggests that previous estimates of both maximum dinosaur growth rates and maximum dinosaur sizes have little statistical support. Suggestions for future research are presented.
format	article
author	Nathan P Myhrvold
author_facet	Nathan P Myhrvold
author_sort	Nathan P Myhrvold
title	Revisiting the estimation of dinosaur growth rates.
title_short	Revisiting the estimation of dinosaur growth rates.
title_full	Revisiting the estimation of dinosaur growth rates.
title_fullStr	Revisiting the estimation of dinosaur growth rates.
title_full_unstemmed	Revisiting the estimation of dinosaur growth rates.
title_sort	revisiting the estimation of dinosaur growth rates.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2013
url	https://doaj.org/article/bb0c5e2ce9d64871afadd6e64931329c
work_keys_str_mv	AT nathanpmyhrvold revisitingtheestimationofdinosaurgrowthrates
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Revisiting the estimation of dinosaur growth rates.

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