Re: Turbinates as endothermy criterion??

[Thomas Duffy <thomasd@clark.edu>]

On Tue, 27 Feb 1996, Nicholas J. Pharris wrote:

> >  This particular dinosaur, known technically as Ornithomimus,
> 
> It would take an *awful* lot of convincing to get me to believe that 
> _Ornithomimus_, in particular, was cold-blooded.
> 
> > is one of a handful of dinosaur groups that Ruben has examined.
> > All lack the special bones.
> 
> "a handful?"  How many dinosaurs constitute a handful?  Does a "handful" 
> really constitute a definitive study?
> 
> >  'We can make a real strong argument that all the meat-eating
> > dinosaurs were cold-blooded,' he said."
> 
> There's a leap of faith if I ever saw one.

Yes!, these exact same points occurred to me (that it is quite
a stretch to believe that Ornithomimus _especially_ was cold-
blooded, and that I'd be real curious to know exactly how many
dinosaur groups he HAS studied).  I should make it clear that
I'm very skeptical of ANY claims for dinosaur ectothermy; it was
only my own ignorance about the whole turbinate issue that caused
me to bring it up.  I seem to hear about it every once in a while
around here (probably because I'm living in southwest Washington
state, only a few miles from where Ruben is doing his work!), and
I was curious what anybody else knew about it.  The thing about 
cartilagenous turbinates is particularly intriguing.  Thanks to 
all who responded--I will definitely look up some of those
recommended resources.  (Maybe if I get educated enough on this
topic I'll even write a letter to the Oregonian, eh?!)
 
Thomas Duffy
thomasd@clark.edu