RE: Endothermy speculation

[Valla Bernhardt <vbernhardt@dallas.clarkbardes.com>]

Pardon me, I've lurked for awhile and i can't help but have several
questions about this issue.

> From: Matthew Bonnan [SMTP:mbonnan@hotmail.com]
        [*]  > but we do find dinosaurs distributed worldwide, 
> and some within the Antarctic circle, which at the very least would have 
> been six months of darkness followed by six months of light.
        [*]  
could I have some references, please?  I'm mainly wondering what continent
and in what time period these dinos have been found.  I've heard of
specimens in all continents, but the time in which they lived on that
continent is more an indicator of the climate and seasons than the continent
itself, imho, as these continents haven't always been in the same place.
I'm not a scientist, so I don't know where to find good references.

> Many have argued that dinosaurs could have relied on their sheer bulk to 
> stay at a relatively stable core temperature, but this ignores a number of
> 
> factors.  First, we know of dinosaurs that lived in cooler regions.  
        [*]  
plus some of them were very very tiny....

> My personal suspicion is 
> that dinosaurs were endothermic BUT perhaps in way that was different from
> 
> our extant examples.  
        [*]  
How does the presence of dinofuzz/feathers enter into the "endo/ecto"
debate?   At what point did avian dinosaurs aquire full blown endothermy as
they use it today?  Is it possible there was a different thermoregulatory
system for theropods/birds than for other non-avian dinos?

thanks, and please don't flame me :-)

2nd technician val the skeptic
"i admit, i'm obsessed with fonts"
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