Aw: Re: Layperson question on endothermic dinosaurs

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

>Getting back on track, in the past forty years we have learned much
>more about how dinosaurs lived and looked. We have gained a better
>understanding of their potential behaviours, and as a side-effect of
>wanting to know about their metabolisms, the field of comparative
>physiology has actually learned a lot about how complicated and
>variable metabolic rates (and thermophysiology) are. Unfortunately
>none of this has brought us any closer to knowing what kind of
>metabolism dinosaurs had.

So far, so good...

>It is generally accepted that dinosaurs were
>diverse enough that one size did not fit all.
>Thus there was likely a spectrum of metabolic
>regimes employed throughout the Mesozoic.

Hang on a second. Here it's you who suddenly jumps to conclusions without 
evidence. We don't even know that much!

>It's also becoming increasingly more accepted that the biggest differences
>between "cold-blooded" animals and "warm blooded" animals occur at the
>small body sizes. Once one reaches the size of your average dinosaur
>those differences become vanishingly small. So a "cold-blooded"
>_T.rex_ probably acted near identically to a "warm-blooded" _T.rex_.

I can't remember specific papers, but there are people who have vehemently 
disagreed with this piece of textbook wisdom.