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Key to Success? Dinosaurs May Have Been Warm-Blooded
Live Science ^
| Nov 10, 2009
| Charles Q. Choi
Posted on 11/11/2009 12:32:37 PM PST by decimon
Many dinosaurs may have been warm-blooded just like mammals or birds, potentially explaining their extraordinary success before their extinction.
For decades, scientists assumed that because dinosaurs resembled lizards, they were cold-blooded as well, their internal temperature rising and falling with the outside world. However, birds are warm-blooded, and the fact that birds seem to be descended from dinosaurs raises the question of whether their ancestors were as well.
If dinosaurs were warm-blooded, they would have possessed the potential for athletic abilities rivaling those of mammals and birds. They could have survived in colder habitats that would kill cold-blooded creatures, such as high mountain ranges and polar regions, enabling them to cover the entire landscape. Such advantages do carry a price - warm-blooded animals need much more food than their cold-blooded counterparts because their rapid metabolisms fatally malfunction if they cool down too much from lack of fuel.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
TOPICS: History; Science
KEYWORDS: dinosaurs; godsgravesglyphs; paleontology; science
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1
posted on
11/11/2009 12:32:38 PM PST
by
decimon
To: SunkenCiv
2
posted on
11/11/2009 12:33:49 PM PST
by
decimon
To: decimon
3
posted on
11/11/2009 12:40:15 PM PST
by
cripplecreek
(Seniors, the new shovel ready project under socialized medicine.)
To: decimon
Actually, I had read about this theory years ago.
4
posted on
11/11/2009 12:40:41 PM PST
by
BradyLS
(DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
To: decimon
Actually, I had read about this theory years ago.
5
posted on
11/11/2009 12:40:43 PM PST
by
BradyLS
(DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
To: BradyLS
Its definitely not a new theory.
6
posted on
11/11/2009 12:47:01 PM PST
by
cripplecreek
(Seniors, the new shovel ready project under socialized medicine.)
To: BradyLS
“Such advantages do carry a price - warm-blooded animals need much more food than their cold-blooded counterparts because their rapid metabolisms fatally malfunction if they cool down too much from lack of fuel.”
It’s not like there wasn’t a plethora of fuel around. Hordes and Herds of it.
7
posted on
11/11/2009 12:52:39 PM PST
by
UCANSEE2
To: All
This thoery is MORE THAN thirty years old...
http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Blooded-Dinosaurs-Adrian-Desmond/dp/0385270631
Book published in the MID-1970s
8
posted on
11/11/2009 1:03:21 PM PST
by
BigEdLB
(Now there ARE 1,000,000 regrets - but it may be too late.)
To: decimon
I recall the warm vs. cold blooded controversy being explored in Mace Baker's book Dinoaurs, back in the early 90's. I don't recall the details, but what I came away with was:
1. The pro-warm side presented concrete, solid reasons why the dinosaurs could not have been cold-blooded.
2. The pro-cold side presented concrete, solid reasons why the dinosaurs could not have been warm-blooded.
Not stated was, to me, the obvious answer: the dinosaurs (or at least some) had a unique thermoregulatory system that does not match either of the 'standard' systems we are used to dichotomizing this subject into. (Dr. Wayne Frair, for example, published an article in Science in the early 70's describing unique aspects of a thermoregulatory system in a species of turtle, such that it could not be simple described as 'cold-blooded.')
9
posted on
11/11/2009 1:18:50 PM PST
by
Liberty1970
(God: He who honors Me, I will honor.)
To: decimon
Just big chickens.
I bet they tasted like chicken.
To: Liberty1970
Oh sure, you’re one of them moderates. ;-)
11
posted on
11/11/2009 1:23:17 PM PST
by
decimon
To: Liberty1970
1. The pro-warm side presented concrete, solid reasons why the dinosaurs could not have been cold-blooded.
2. The pro-cold side presented concrete, solid reasons why the dinosaurs could not have been warm-blooded.
If warm-blooded, such huge land animals would have likely overheated, or at least been unable to maintain the entire body at roughly the same temperature, but if cold-blooded, they would have been too lethargic and dependent on environmental conditions, that's the way I've heard it explained.
12
posted on
11/11/2009 2:25:12 PM PST
by
flowerplough
( Pennsylvania today - New New Jersey meets North West Virginia.)
To: decimon; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...
13
posted on
11/11/2009 7:23:47 PM PST
by
SunkenCiv
(https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
To: SunkenCiv; decimon
i don’t know why but i read this headline and the thought of someone following helen thomas around with a rectal thermometer pops into my head and it is bedtime and i hope i don’t have any nightmares because just being awake some days is really all i can take...
14
posted on
11/11/2009 8:20:04 PM PST
by
bigheadfred
(My mama warned me there'd be days like these :-)))
To: bigheadfred
Thanks a bunch. Now none of us can sleep.
15
posted on
11/11/2009 8:49:55 PM PST
by
null and void
(We are now in day 294 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
To: decimon
“potentially explaining their extraordinary success before their extinction.”
Damn extinctions!
16
posted on
11/12/2009 4:57:52 AM PST
by
wolfcreek
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsd7DGqVSIc)
To: wolfcreek
potentially explaining their extraordinary success before their extinction. Damn extinctions!
Yeah, just when you think you have it made...
17
posted on
11/12/2009 5:06:47 AM PST
by
decimon
To: decimon
You didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn last night, by chance? :-))
(Just trying to exorcise the demon, at least the afterimages...)
:-))
18
posted on
11/12/2009 5:31:34 AM PST
by
bigheadfred
( Be who you are and say what you feel. Those who mind don't matter. Those who matter don't mind.)
To: null and void
I’m still here! How about you? :-))
19
posted on
11/12/2009 10:15:01 AM PST
by
bigheadfred
( Be who you are and say what you feel. Those who mind don't matter. Those who matter don't mind.)
To: bigheadfred
Awake.
And filled with a terrible resolve.
20
posted on
11/12/2009 10:51:06 AM PST
by
null and void
(We are now in day 295 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
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