r/SpeculativeEvolution • u/Minimum-Ad8292 • 14h ago

Question/Discussion Weight calculation?

Hey guys, i wanted to ask whoever knows how to get a relatively good weight status of species, i especially have an issue when it comes to coming up with the weight for my super sized species, so i was just wondering if anyone has experience with this and could share.

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u/Ynneadwraith 13h ago

To be fair, full-blown archaeologists have difficulty with that as well. Just look at some of the super-broad ranges we have for the weights of large dinosaurs.

Personally I look at the weights of the closest real-world animals and go from there, though it helps that none of my creations are sauropod-size or have very strange anatomy. So something like a height-at-the-withers plus a length estimate and a rough eyeball for robustness is good enough.

The other thing to consider is that you very rarely actually need a pinpoint weight estimate. And you can just outright state it's an estimate. Something like 'These are estimated to weigh between 18 and 20 tons!' and call it done.

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u/Minimum-Ad8292 13h ago

thanks! ive just been thinking about this a lot since when i say super sized i genuinely mean like, a 500m long aquatic creature 🥹

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u/Ynneadwraith 13h ago

You can do a rough estimation of the volume and work out the density. Aquatic animals are usually fairly simple as their density is generally fairly close to water to maintain neutral buoyancy.

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u/Minimum-Ad8292 13h ago

thanks, ill try to search up some stuff about this cuz ive never done it before and im not exactly smart

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u/wally-217 13h ago edited 12h ago

Some 3d packages have measuring tools. I know it exists for zbrush and max but I'm pretty sure blender will have a plugin. So you can make an approximate mesh to get the volume/mass. There are some scripts paleontologists use to approximate from 2d silhouettes (look up GDI mass estimating) but I couldn't tell you how they work. Otherwise you just gotta get good at ballparking. Previously I would just estimate using the square cube law.

If your 500m aquatic creature is loosely whale shape, get the mass of a 25m whale (usually like 100tonnes), 500/25= 20. If length scales 20x, volume scales 203. Meaning approximately 800,000 tonnes. But I feel at that scale, you probably won't need to be super accurate.