They are bigger than you think!

Megatoph · **on:** May 10, 2006, 12:43:21 AM

I noticed that some people think Littlefoot and his friends arn't verry big. well in truth he and his friends are bigger than you would think. Littlefoot for one would be the size of a adault human. so think about that.

action9000 · **Reply #1 on:** May 10, 2006, 01:07:18 AM

Interestingly, Littlefoot Fan and I did a bit of analysis on this very topic on MSN, not that long ago.

The problem with trying to figure out the size of Littlefoot, is that his size keeps changing (!) in proportion to his family. In one scene, we see him come up to the knees of his grandparents (especially from far-away shots of the family), whereas in another scene, he nicely fits onto the top of grandpa longneck's head. Considering that adult Apatosaurus (Littlefoot's species) stands 15 feet tall to the top of his hips / shoulders, and the top of Littlefoot (minus his neck) comes up to just below the knees of his grandparents, Littlefoot cannot be any more than about 5 feet tall, to the top of his hips/shoulders.

Littlefoot's neck could add another foot or so so his maximum height. Remember though, that a real apatosaurus cannot lift its neck much above the height of the top of its back, or its vertabrae clash into each other, and its back seizes up. Littlefoot seems to sort of have a "rubber neck" (he can move his neck pretty much wherever he likes without damaging himself)

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/...patosaurus.html

Megatoph · **Reply #2 on:** May 10, 2006, 01:13:05 AM

I noticed that. I don't know if its production flaws or what. but I was thinking scientificly. but your right about that. thanks for pointing that out action9000

Megatoph · **Reply #3 on:** May 10, 2006, 01:24:40 AM

"ruber neck" whered that come from?

Littlefoot is the Apatasaurus (brontosaurus was its original name) that every one in my area seems to think is only 2ft tall! what the hell? he can't be 2ft tall.

action9000 · **Reply #4 on:** May 10, 2006, 01:27:26 AM

No, he can't be 2 ft tall

My guess it that he's 4.5ft to 5ft tall. Probably closer to 5 ft

Megatoph · **Reply #5 on:** May 10, 2006, 01:29:46 AM

so how tall would he be compared to a human?

action9000 · **Reply #6 on:** May 10, 2006, 01:42:02 AM

Well, that depends on how tall the human is

Humans generally range from about 5ft to 6' 6" in height. Littlefoot would be about the size of an average "tween" or early teenager.

Personally, I'm 6' 2", so he would probably stand up to a little under halfway up my chest. So it's true; he's not that small

DarkHououmon · **Reply #7 on:** May 10, 2006, 01:51:15 AM

I'm only about 5 ft 2. Littlefoot would almost be eye level with me. o_O

action9000 · **Reply #8 on:** May 10, 2006, 02:55:19 AM

Btw, thank you Malte, for fixing the All Caps on the title of this topic.

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I'm only about 5 ft 2. Littlefoot would almost be eye level with me. o_O

With the way he can move his neck around, he could probably look you in the eye pretty easy!

He may be eye-level, but he's bound to have a bit more weight on him than you do!

My question now is, how much do you think Littlefoot weighs? This is a tough question, but I think we can figure it out through ratios and proportions. We are missing a lot of information, so there are a lot of assumptions being made on my numbers

-------------------Beware! Math appears in this section!-------------------------
(I'm no math expert. This is just the result of my brainstorming and random logic. I can guarantee there are errors, but it's close enough for our purposes

)

Let's see, an adult apatosaurus weighs about 35 tons, is 15 feet tall, and 80 feet long.

the ratio 15:80 (height:length), assuming that Littlefoot is 5 feet tall, means that he is approximately 26.6 feet long, from head to tail. However, we must remember that the proportions of his body will change as he ages. For example. his neck and tail will grow to be proportionally longer than at his current age (Littlefoot's tail is quite short, proportionally, compared to the tails of his mother and grandparents). It is probably a safe estimate that Littlefoot is approximately 10-14 feet long at this point.

For the purposes of these calculations, I am going to assume that Littlefoot is 5 feet tall and 13 feet long.

If something that is 15 feet tall and 80 feet long weighs 35 tons, what would something that is 5 feet tall and 13 feet long weigh? Tricky question, because the mass isn't equally balanced throughout the total volume of the dinosaur.

Comparing Heights: 5 feet (LF) / 15 feet (Adult) = 0.333 = 33.33% of adult height
Comparing Lengths:13 feet (LF) / 80 feet (Adult) = 0.1625 = 16.25% of adult length

To find the average difference in size (height and length):

0.333 + 0.1625 = 0.4955
0.4955 / 2 = 0.24775 = 24.775%

Littlefoot is therefore about 25% of his average adult size, based on length and height.
The problem is, this doesn't factor in the change in width/girth of the dinosaur. I am assuming it remains the same proportion for the purpose of this.

factoring in girth as well, which I am assuming to be the same average proportion, 24.775%
(0.24775)^3 = 0.0152069105
Littlefoot's size = 1.52% of total adult size

This last step assumes that adult size is proportional to adult weight. Therefore Littlefoot is 1.52% of his adult weight.

Calculating Littlefoot's weight based on his percentage of adult size:
35 tons (adult weight) x 0.015206 (percentage of adult weight) = ~532 lbs

-------------------------------End of Math----------------------------------

Therefore Littlefoot weighs approximately 532 lbs.
What do you think, does this seem somewhat reasonable? I know these calculations are not scientific at all, but it's the best I could pull out of my head

Remember too, that if our size estimates are incorrect, this weight will also be incorrect.

If there are any math whizzes around here, challenge me! Does this make any sense?

Malte279 · **Reply #9 on:** May 10, 2006, 04:04:08 AM

I'm afraid that there is no real possibility to settle the question of Littlefoot's size for sure, just because of the varrying of that size that was already mentioned. We have a scene in LBT 7 where Littlefoot's head is smaller than a fir cone and there are many sequel scenes in which a treestar is about as large or larger than his head, in LBT 6 we see his head just a little larger than a sharptooth's tooth. All of these scenes would suggest him to be rather little. We cannot really argue with science here (other than for fun), for by scientific estimations he would grow by several kilograms per day, which he certainly doesn't.

pokeplayer984 · **Reply #10 on:** May 10, 2006, 03:32:26 PM

Littlefoot's weight is highly questionable. In all truth, it's hard to believe he weighs 2.1 tons.

My guess is that when they reach maturity, they put on ALOT of wieght.

action9000 · **Reply #11 on:** May 10, 2006, 04:16:06 PM

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In all truth, it's hard to believe he weighs 2.1 tons.

And this is why I shouldn't be trying to do math at 2:00 in the morning

(also, I forgot that a ton was 2000 pounds, not 1000. The metric Tonne is 1000 kg, but the imperial Ton is 2000 lbs. I didn't consider that last night.)

It seems that estimating his weight is nearly impossible. Consider that my numbers above show Littlefoot as 6.1% of the weight of an adult. A newborn 8 lb baby borne to a 150 lb adult is just over 5% of the weight of the adult.

Hmm, another possibility is an error in the math. I think I see where I may have went wrong. Let's try this:

(0.24775)^3 = 0.0152069105
Littlefoot's size = 1.52% of total adult size

35 tons * .0015206 = 532 lbs = ~0.26 tons.

Therefore Littlefoot's weight is 532 Lbs

The problem with this, is that it makes Littlefoot much lighter than he would be, realistically, though it seems more accurate for his size.

Look at the weight of an adult cow, which is approximate 950 kg = 2100 lbs = just over 1 ton. I highly doubt that Littlefoot weighs more than a cow.

Megatoph · **Reply #12 on:** May 10, 2006, 04:19:28 PM

yes I'm back in black.

Littlefoots weit? hmmmm? it depends on how much he eats. judging by that probly 200 lds. maby more. I weigh oh 300 lds and I'm 6ft 7in 3cm. so I'll tower over him easy. now compare Littlefoot to Arnold Schwarzenegger see what you get.

this is fun! we need to do this more often.

Littlefoot Fan · **Reply #13 on:** May 10, 2006, 04:30:29 PM

I really think this all mounts down to the fact that they weren't really thinking of this when they made the films (especially since it's a kid's film). Also the fact that he changes in size during different scenes would make it near impossible to figure out exactly how big they really intended him to be.

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The only issue with this I have, is how does a 2-ton dinosaur gallop and play like he does so easily? Remember the scene in LBT 11 when he's trying to climb onto the rock ledge, but was too little? Shouldn't a 2-ton weight pulling down have broken at least a part of that ledge?

Action9000 had a really good point there which makes it likely that they made the mistake of making him alot smaller and lighter than what he would actually be.

It could just be their fault

action9000 · **Reply #14 on:** May 10, 2006, 04:33:45 PM

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I really think this all mounts down to the fact that they weren't really thinking of this when they made the films (especially since it's a kid's film).

Sadly, I think this is true. They weren't considering Littlefoot's size scale in every scene, nor were they considering his supposed age when deciding on a size for him.

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they made the mistake of making him alot smaller and lighter than what he would actually be.

That's what it comes down to. Littlefoot is much smaller than we expect and his size continuously changes, so it is difficult to pinpoint his size accurately.

Megatoph · **Reply #15 on:** May 10, 2006, 04:40:53 PM

I'd just go with what science tells us thats what I'm doing. but it is hard to tell how tall he is. how much he weighs. but it is fun to figure it out.

trexmaster · **Reply #16 on:** June 21, 2006, 07:09:08 AM

Quote from: TITANOSAUR,May 9 2006 on 11:43 PM

I noticed that some people think Littlefoot and his friends arn't verry big. well in truth he and his friends are bigger than you would think. Littlefoot for one would be the size of a adault human. so think about that.

You've provided zilch evidence to back this up.

I wonder, how does Littlefoot compare in size to the tyrannosaurs? I've read that a T. rex's knee was about equal in height from the ground to a standing man's head. There should exist plenty of instances in LBT history where we see Littlefoot stand close to a tyrannosaur. If his head does indeed reach the sharptooth's knee, we probably would have to agree that Littlefoot reaches human height. If he doesn't, we can dismiss that hypothesis (unless one could argue that the LBT universe is a "Skull Island" type of place where dinosaurs grow much bigger than they did in the Terran Mesozoic).

lbt/cty_lover · **Reply #17 on:** November 21, 2007, 09:37:22 PM

I believe that unless this is Skull Island, Littlefoot should be about five feet in height from foot to shoulder. The sharpteeth seem to always be larger than life.

Manny Cav · **Reply #18 on:** November 21, 2007, 10:11:59 PM

I'm sure that Littlefoot would pretty much match up to the height of an "average" human, though that's just winging it. We can only speculate....