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Re: theropod volumes
> A biology prof came into my office today looking for references on
> theropod thoracic volume vs. body size/weight. Would you all be kind
> enough to send me some citations that I can pass along to her?
You're completely out of luck. Hardly anybody seems to care about theropod
thoracic volume. The main reason is that it's difficult to estimate because
we don't know some basic facts.
Did the coracoids touch (like reconstructed in the 1998 paper on the first
recognized tyrannosaurid wishbones)? Did the furcula instead hang between
the widely separated coracoids (as reconstructed in the Sue mount)? Did the
coracoids _almost_ touch? Did this differ between clades? Did GSP's
"cartilaginous episternum" exist, and if so, in which clades? How oblique
were the scapulae (this correlates with the position of the ribs)? How did
_this_ differ between clades?
Then there's often the question about the basic shape of the ribs -- most
fossils have been flattened, to various degrees, by millions of years of
pressure from the overburden.
As for body weight... it has often been estimated from estimates of body
volume. See above for why this introduces humongous margins of error.
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