Re: Cold or Hot?

[Jura <pristichampsus@yahoo.com>]

--- Tyler Kerr <tylerkerr@comcast.net> wrote:

> Has this already been discussed? Stop me if it has.
> 
>     The previous posts about dinosaurs being big
> reptiles reminded me. I'm just a sophomore high
> school student so I don't have much knowledge on the
> subject, but was it ever discovered if dinosaurs
> were ectotherms (like reptiles) or endotherms (like
> their avian counterparts)? I've never heard anything
> of that nature being discussed and it's been bugging
> me lately. Thanks in advance.
> 
> Tyler Kerr

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Check out the May issue of Natural History Magazine.
It's devoted entirely to Dinosaurs, and features a
brief article on the whole "cold-blood/warm-blood"
debate (under butting heads). 

If Bakker's Heresies book was good for one thing, it
would be the stimulated interest in thermophysiology
that came about after it. For instance, now we realize
that thermophysiological types are more akin to the
colour spectrum, than a simple either/or "pigeon
holing" scenario. Terms like warm-blooded and
cold-blooded are outdated and inaccurate. Even terms
such as ectothermic and endothermic are far too
simplified as well. 

In terms of "settling" the "hot or not" debate, it is
still just as much in the air now, as it was 20 years
ago. Short of a time machine and some internal
thermometers, it will probably always remain
unresolved. 

As for whether, or not dinosaur lifestyles resembled
mammals & birds, or extant reptiles (who hardly
conform to the "typical" view of reptiles); the
results found so far, indicate that dinosaur lives
were much more like...well dinosaurs. They don't seem
to fit any group very well. They were, very much,
their own class of critter. They seemed to have stolen
some parts from extant mammals, birds & reptiles,
while incorporating things that we have no living
analogues for (e.g. practically anything to do with
how sauropods lived).

To put it another way: No, there has been no
resolution yet. There probably won't ever will be. On
the bright side, trying to figure it out, has resulted
in a wealth of new knowledge on how extant animals
keep their temperatures up.

Jason


"I am impressed by the fact that we know less about many modern [reptile] types 
than we do of many fossil groups." - Alfred S. Romer


                
__________________________________ 
Yahoo! Mail 
Stay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour: 
http://tour.mail.yahoo.com/mailtour.html