Re: New Ruben et al. dinosaur physiology reference

[Graydon <oak@uniserve.com>]

On Wed, Jul 09, 2003 at 02:07:56PM -0500, Tim Williams scripsit:
> Graydon <oak@uniserve.com> wrote:
> >I'm bothered by it becuase nasal turbinates are primarily a mechanism
> >for moisture retention and heat exchange, and it's hard to see them
> >as the only way to do that, particularly given the probable basal
> >nature of the dinosaurian uniflow airsack and lung system, so I'm
> >seeing this as an unjustifiably strong conclusion.
> 
> The hypothesis is that the presence of respiratory turbinates can be
> equated with endothermy.  Thus, the absence of RTs indicates the
> absence of endothermy.  This equation has been criticized (many, many
> times) as overly simplistic.  Greg Paul, for one, provides an
> excellent summation:
> 
> http://www.cmnh.org/dinoarch/1995Sep/msg00187.html

Thank you.

I'd take the elephants and kids to outright falsify the hypothesis.

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