Re: [dinosaur] T. rex known better than recent reptile species?

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

Gesendet:ÂMontag, 12. Oktober 2020 um 21:15 Uhr
Von:Â"Jura" <pristichampsus@yahoo.com>

> Adding to others statements here, not only do we know far less about most 
> modern species than we do many dinosaurs, but a lot of the interesting 
> aspects of modern animals (behaviour, locomotion, bite force)

Metabolism!

Before people got curious about Mesozoic dinosaurs in the mid-70s, our 
understanding of the metabolic rates of extant animals was pretty much 
exhausted by slapping the labels "warm-blooded" and "cold-blooded" on them.

This goes all the way to curiosities like gigantothermy being first 
hypothesized for sauropods before any extant examples were known, then 
"discovered" in extant leatherback turtles, and then disproved in extant 
leatherback turtles â they're ordinary endotherms like you & me.