3 ms·

Is it that heavy because it petrified? I wonder how much it would've weighed as just bone.

• LeifCarrotson 5y ago
  Yes, a fossilized (not petrified) object has a density similar to stone, typically around 2.7 kg/m^3. Bones, like most living tissues, have a density close to 1. So to a first approximation, this would have weighed 1,000 lbs when alive, comparable to the head of a modern elephant.
  • topher515 5y ago
    You’re suggesting that a cubic meter of stone weighs just 3 kg (6.6 lbs)? That doesn’t sound right.
    • krick 5y ago
      He obviously meant 3 000 kg. Easy to make a mistake, since 3 kg would be 1 liter, which is more common way to think about densities.
    • athenot 5y ago
      2.7 Kg/dm³ (Just noticed that Unicode U+3379 is the DM CUBED glyph but doesn't render on the mac, unlike ㎣, ㎤, ㎦)
  • johnisgood 5y ago
    For the interested: according to a quick search, the head of an elephant weighs 400 kg (881 lbs), and among African elephants adult males weigh between 1800 (3968 lbs) and 6300 kg (13 889 lbs). They are heavy!