quadrupeds: Body Mass Estimates Using QE, MR, AHR1985, and MCF2004

Description

This function returns body mass estimates for quadrupeds based on the combined minimum humeral and femoral circumferences using a set of four published equations (in particular those intended for non-avian dinosaurs)

Usage

quadrupeds(HC, FC, QE_MR.eq = c("raw","phylocor"), data = NULL)

Arguments

a value or vector representing humeral circumference (in mm)

a value or vector representing femoral circumference (in mm)

QE_MR.eq

desired estimation equations to used by QE and MR. Two possible choices (See Details)

data

an optional object of class = "data.frame" or class = "matrix"

Value

Eight numeric values or columns are returned (all masses are in grams):
QEA numeric value or vector of mass estimates using QE (bivariate regression)
upper.QEA numeric value or vector representing the upper prediction error of the QE based on that derived for the specific equation by Campione and Evans (2012)
lower.QEA numeric value or vector representing the lower prediction error of the QE
MRA numeric value or vector of mass estimates using MR (multiple regression)
upper.MRA numeric value or vector representing the upper prediction error of the MR based on that derived for the specific equation by Campione and Evans (2012)
lower.MRA numeric value or vector representing the lower prediction error of the MR
AHR1985A numeric value or vector of mass estimates using Anderson et al. (1985)
MCF2004A numeric value or vector of mass estimates using Mazzetta et al. (2004)

Details

This function returns estimates from four published equations intented for terrestrial quadrupeds (in particular non-avian dinosaurs): two from Campione and Evans (2012) based on bivariate and multiple regression approaches; Anderson et al. (1985); Mazzetta et al. (2004). For more details please see the specific functions.

If a data object is specified, the mass estiamtes and additional results will be added as columns to the data.frame or matrix within that object.

References

Anderson, J. F., Hall-Martin, A. and Russell, D.A. (1985) Long-bone circumference and weight in mammals, birds and dinosaurs. Journal of the Zoological Society of London A, 207, 53-61. Campione, N. E. and Evans, D. C. (2012) A universal scaling relationship between body mass and proximal limb bone dimensions in quadrupedal terrestrial tetrapods. BMC Biology, 10, 60.

Mazzetta, G. V., Christiansen, P. and Farina, R. A. (2004) Giants and bizzares: body size of some southern South American Cretaceous dinosaurs. Historical Biology, 16, 71-83.