Re: re:T. rex hot blood

[Earth Magazine <72350.1764@compuserve.com>]

The Times was able to cover the T. rex homeothermy paper so soon because  
Science (and Nature too) give the press a few days' advance notice of their 
contents, as long as we promise not to report them until the cover date. They 
will also fax us their galleys if we ask, so I've now seen the T. rex paper 
and Science's own news story on it, by Virginia Morell. 

I now see that when I wrote homeothermy before, I meant endothermy. 

Other extra facts: The rex was excavated by Horner. Barrick and Showers say 
they see evidence the animal had the same body temperature year round: no 
seasonal variation. The maximum temperature variation, seasonally and 
core/extremity, is 4 degrees C. They argue that gigantothermy would lead to 
both a greater core-extremity difference and a greater seasonal variation 
assuming the animal experienced cold winters. 

Both the Times and the Virginia Morell story report criticisms of the study 
similar to those made by Dieter Birks. I'm not sure which ions Barrick and 
Showers were looking at, but they do discuss the issue of the isotope ratios 
in the water. 

The reference is Science, 8 July 1994, Vol. 265, page 222. 

Thanks for everyone's comments. 

Tom Waters
Earth magazine
72350.1764@compuserve.com