How Do You Weigh a Giant?: teacher key

The Biggest Animals, grade 11 edition, written for 11th grade. Weighing, scaling and modeling: three ways scientists put a number on animals nobody can put on a scale.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. Why can one weight mislead for a polar bear?
   • Bears never change weight
   • A fattened bear can gain 50 percent over the year (answer)
   • Polar bears cannot be measured
2. How was Perucetus's weight estimated?
   • By weighing its fossil on a scale
   • By measuring its tracks
   • By comparing skeleton mass with body mass in living animals (answer)
3. What does the gap between 69 tonnes and 44.2 to 77.6 tonnes for Patagotitan show?
   • How uncertain such estimates are (answer)
   • That one method is perfect
   • That the fossil is fake
4. Why does the giant squid's size get exaggerated?
   • It has no eyes
   • It is too small to see
   • Few whole animals have been studied and claims of 20 meters are undocumented (answer)
5. Which snake is heavier, the anaconda or the reticulated python?
   • The python
   • The anaconda (answer)
   • Neither

Words

• subspecies: local variety
• vertebrae: backbone bones
• titanosaur: giant dinosaur group
• invertebrate: no backbone