File talk:Human-plateosaurus size comparison(V2).png

Wrong size

This animal as depicted is much bigger than all Plateosaurus remains I have seen that were reasonably complete. Much bigger than SMNS 13200, SMNS F33, GPIT 1 and GPIT2, the Halberstadt specimen and the Berlin mount and collections material. Rather, it looks like someone took the largest possible bone anyone has ever referred to Plateosaurus, and scaled the animal accordingly. That is at best questionable, after all single bones (and there are huge ?Plateosaurus femora) may well belong to a different, closely related genus, or even one that is only distantly related, but has a similar hindlimb architecture (i.e. a very basal sauropod). I suggest that the picutre here should be scaled to the typical Plateosaurus, thus to the well known and fairly complete specimens, and not to some (potentially fictional) theoretical maximum.

GPIT 1 measured ~5 m from the tip of the snout to the tip of the tail, SMNS 13200 is roughly 10% longer. Hip height of GPIT 1 in a running pose is 1.5 m, in a standing pose 1.6 m. I.e. an adult human can look over the hips of Plateosaurus easily!

I'll try to replace this figure soon, but would like to hear thought and ideas.HMallison (talk) 11:35, 26 October 2009 (UTC)