Dr. Spotila's talk - 6/28/2001 - DVPS (Phila.)

["Edels" <edels@email.msn.com>]

On Thursday, June 28th, 2001 - Dr. James R. Spotila (Drexel University -
Phila., PA) gave a talk to the Delaware Valley Paleontological Society
(DVPS), held at the Academy of Natural Science of Phila. (ANSP).  The title
of the talk was "Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs? They're Not!" [Admittedly, this
title was created by the DVPS events department (or was it just you Patti?
:-)  ].

Essentially, Dr. Spotila presented his evidence supporting the idea that
dinosaurs (especially the ones that most people think of) were not
"warm-blooded" (endothermic). The main point was the larger the animal - the
less the need for the endothermic type of metabolism. This was based on
experiments with leatherback turtles and American alligators.

  He is a good speaker, and there was little to fault in his presentation.
HOWEVER, I did ask him whether any of these points applied to animals less
than 2-3 meters long.  He replied that "anything goes" under that size in
terms of metabolism and thermoregulation.  This obviously allows for
smaller, endothermic dinosaurs; so the supposed premise of the talk is
disproved.

I neglected to ask him about large, hairy mammals (such as
_Indricotherium_ - which we all agree were endothermic); and whether
smaller, feathered dinosaurs (which might be endothermic) might increase in
size and still maintain their integument and the endothermy.


Allan Edels