Re: Warm-blooded debate

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 97-07-12 09:15:19 EDT, jdaniel@aristotle.net (Joe Daniel)
writes:

<< Say you measure the temperature of a
 large sauropod.  Its temperature will not change greatly over several
 days simply due to its large size.  It will certainly change less than
 your average camel and will almost assuredly be as warm.  Is the
 sauropod thus proven to be endothermic?  No, at least not in the sense
 that most people mean when they talk about endothermy, albeit most
 people throw these terms around without any real understanding of what
 it means as GSPaul and several others on the list have pointed out
 numerous times. >>

Exactly right. Body temperature measurements are >necessary< but not
>sufficient< to establish endothermy/ectothermy. That's why I said you need
to measure body-temperature changes over an extended period of time. And even
>that< may not be sufficient--as you imply.

Indeed--let's simply take a vote. Majority rules: were all dinosaurs starting
with the common ancestor of Dinosauria endothermic or not? Yes or no. We've
all heard all sides of the debate, now it's time for the jury to return a
verdict. Then let the vote be the end of this debate, so we can go on to
other dinosaurian things and stop going around in circles. (Sorry--I forgot.
Some people >like< going around in circles.)