Meeting Abstract
P1.210 Saturday, Jan. 4 15:30 Computing body mass from skeletons using photogrammetric models NEUMEYER, C.H.*; FARMER, C.G.; Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City; Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City courtney.neumeyer@utah.edu
Body mass underpins numerous key life history traits. Therefore, it is an important characteristic to deduce in order to understand the biology of both extinct and extant organisms. One method used to find body mass of extinct animals is to compute body volumes from reconstructed skeletons and multiply this volume by a density based on extant animals. We aimed to test the validity of using estimates of body volume to compute mass. We weighed a specimen of a juvenile American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) using a conventional top loading scale. We then removed and weighed the skin, muscle, and viscera. Using VisualSFM, we created a photogrammetric (3D) model of the remaining skeleton. Then we processed the model using CloudCompare, MeshLab, and MatLab. We multiplied volumes of segments of the model by 900 kg ml-3 to obtain masses. The mass given by the top loading scale was 1.4 kg and the computed mass was 1.5 kg. We are expanding the study to include more individuals and more species but, these preliminary data suggest the modeling methodologies can accurately estimate body mass. This work was supported by NSF-IOS-1055080 to CGF.
