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Nature 409, 987-988 (22 February 2001) | doi:10.1038/35059184

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The bite of Allosaurus

Gregory M. Erickson

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A combination of analytical methods used in engineering and scanning techniques from medicine can be applied in some surprising areas of research — the biomechanics of dinosaur feeding, for instance.

Understanding the biomechanics of organs in the body requires a diversity of information1. You have to know the structure's material properties (its stiffness, for instance), its size and shape, and its mechanical relationships with other structures.