Re: Warm-Blooded debate

["Michael" <tons@ccs.netside.com>]

> Date:          Wed, 18 Jun 1997 11:12:12 -0400 (EDT)
> Reply-to:      Dinogeorge@aol.com
> From:          Dinogeorge@aol.com
> To:            jwoolf@erinet.com, brucet@mindspring.com
> Cc:            dinosaur@usc.edu, Dinogeorge@aol.com
> Subject:       Re: Warm-Blooded debate

> In a message dated 97-06-18 10:35:40 EDT, jwoolf@erinet.com (Jonathon Woolf)
> writes:
> 
> << Ectotherms have
>  no endurance because they can only generate energy anaerobically. >>
> 
> Too bad you haven't been able to find _A Cold Look at Warm-Blooded
> Dinosaurs_, because it contains a key paper by Regal and Gans on the role of
> the four-chambered heart in aerobic metabolism. Endothermy is only loosely
> connected with endurance in tetrapods; the four-chambered heart much more so.
> Since crocs >almost< have four-chambered hearts, and birds have them, we can
> use the Extant Phylogenetic Bracket to argue that all dinosaurs, which are
> phylogenetically between crocs and birds, had them. This, rather than
> endothermy--which developed much later, perhaps only in the theropod lineage
> that eventually evolved into birds--was necessarliy responsible for
> dinosaurs' erect stance and cruising ability.
> 
Also, AFAIK, ectotherms have the basic tools at the cellular level 
for their mitochondria to use fuel aerobically.  AFAIK, only 
cyanobacteria, those bacteria that use non-organic material, and a 
few eukaryotic bacteria are obligatory anaerobic organisms.

Don't confuse stamina with cellular aerobic/anaerobic respiration.

Michael Teuton