In the study, published this week in the Journal of Zoology, Geoffrey Birchard, associate professor of environmental science and policy at George Mason University, was part of a team which uncovered a problem with the statistical model used by some scientists in the dinosaur community to estimate the mass of dinosaurs.

"The original equation used by scientists produces fairly accurate results when determining the mass of smaller animals, but when used on larger animals our research shows that many errors have occurred," says Birchard. "The new equation shows that dinosaurs are much smaller than we thought, but there is no mistaking that they were indeed huge animals."

The researchers developed a new equation for calculating dinosaur mass based on bone dimensions. This equation doesn't require the transformation of data that the original equation uses.