Why do you look at the leg bone? Do you look at any other bones in the animals?

Question: Why do you look at the leg bone? Do you look at any other bones in the animals?
- Keywords:
  bone,
  leg,
  research
Asked by harryarcher to Charlotte on 12 Jun 2012.
- Charlotte Brassey answered on 12 Jun 2012:
  
  I’m particularly interested in the relationship between how heavy an animal is, and how strong their bones are. Because I work on birds which are bipedal (i.e. walk on 2 legs), all their body weight is supported by their hindlimbs when they walk.
  
  Because there is a nice clear relationship between leg bone diameter and the weight of the animal in modern species, we can then use this same relationship to predict the body mass of an extinct dinosaur. Simply by measuring the diameter of a fossilized leg bone!

Question: Why do you look at the leg bone? Do you look at any other bones in the animals?