Re: Bigger dinosaurs had warmer blood.

[Jura <pristichampsus@yahoo.com>]

--- "Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu> wrote:

> 
> On Tue, 11 Jul 2006, Allan Edels wrote:
> >> From Yahoo: 
>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5166518.stm
> >
> > Bigger dinosaurs had warmer blood.
> >
> > The bigger a dinosaur was, the warmer its blood, a
> study of the big beasts' 
> > fossil remains shows.
> > [...]
> > But as dinosaurs got bigger, they became less
> efficient at dissipating heat 
> > and this helped to keep them warm anyway. This is
> known as inertial 
> > homeothermy.
> > According to the scientists' equation, the
> enormous sauropod Apatosaurus - 
> > which at 13,000kg was among one of the biggest
> dinosaurs - had a body 
> > temperature of just over 40C.
> 
> And the first thing that came to mind for me was how
> DID they shed heat?
> 
> If they had to move fast to escape a predator, that
> would have raised 
> their temperature even more...

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

I'm thinking that this might have been the main
function of air sacs in dinosaurs (esp. large
theropods and sauropods).

That aside, I doubt _Apatosaurus ajax_ ever had to
move fast to do anything.

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

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