Caltech Scientists Measure Dinosaur Body Temp 51
damn_registrars writes "Using rare isotope ratios, a geology team at CalTech has determined body temperatures of sauropod dinosaurs. Their work finds temperatures that are roughly in line with modern mammals for body temperature. However, as the authors point out, this does not on its own confirm dinosaurs to be entirely warm-blooded, as they may have kept these temperatures by sheer mass. The peer-reviewed paper is available online in PNAS. You can also get the article free through pubmed."
Good work, guys (Score:5, Funny)
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Perhaps they could have found some other business opportunities instead?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/24/horse_oysters/ [theregister.co.uk]
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You'd think the reason this took so long was because they had to fabricate a thermometer large enough, but in fact the real hold up was convincing a grad student to stick that thermometer up the dinosaur's ass.
After Professor Waxman was killed, it was hard to find anyone willing to do this. - Very Old 'Far Side' reference
Re:Good work, guys (Score:4, Funny)
http://www.pulse.org.za/pulse/farside.html [pulse.org.za]
An instant later, both Professor Waxman, and his time machine are obliterated, leaving the cold-blooded / warm-blooded dinosaur debate still unresolved.
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Do you know the difference between an oral and a rectal thermometer?
.
.
The taste.
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in fact the real hold up was convincing a grad student to stick that thermometer up the dinosaur's ass.
Are you kidding?
The grad student was probably happy to do it, since it meant the adviser was finally off of their ass!
Where did they get . . . (Score:3)
. . . that big a rectal thermometer?
It's Caltech (Score:2, Informative)
That is all.
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That is all.
WALLOWITZ: It was him or me, ma! HIM OR ME!!!
Birds Are Warm Blooded (Score:2)
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It could have evolved somewhere half way between dinosaurs and birds.
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There is nothing half-way between dinosaurs and birds. One of Jesus' miracles was turning all those gigantic, roving eating machines into birds to the delight of all involved (but mostly just for the lulz.)
Didn't you pay attention in history class?
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There is nothing half-way between dinosaurs and birds. One of Jesus' miracles was turning all those gigantic, roving eating machines into birds to the delight of all involved (but mostly just for the lulz.)
Didn't you pay attention in history class?
For the lulz? I didn't know that Jesus was a terrorist!
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Large Size = Warm Blooded (Score:2)
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Not necessarily, the metabolism inside the dinosaur could have kept it warm enough, even when it was resting. The energy produced goes up by the cube of the size, while the surface area to lose that heat only goes up by the square.
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Warm blooded also implies that the temperature stays relatively constant within a narrow range. Dinosaurs could have been warmer than their environment, but still with a wide range in operating temperatures, depending on their activity, sunshine and other factors.
That's how warm-bloodedness would have evolved. Starting with a crude mechanism to keep temperature within a wide band, and slowly refining it to narrower and narrower bands.
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If its metabolism was enough to keep it warm, and it has some mechanism to reduce the metabolism or get ride of the extra heat when it gets too warm, we have a warm blooded creature!!! Now it its metabolism was enough to keep it warm, it does not have some mechanism to slow that metabolism or get ride of the extra heat when it gets too warm, we have a dead creature!!! So, I guess stating that its metabolism can keep it warm is enough here.
Please compare a cold blooded creature (like a snake, for example) th
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Even cold blooded animals generate some body heat. I would think that if you were to balloon a monitor lizard up to surapod size it's body temperature would probably be significantly higher than the environment. An Apatosaurus is 330 times more massive than a komodo dragon but has only 50 times the surface area. Quite frankly, I'd be surprised if they didn't have to go looking for shade on warm days to avoid overheating, even if they were relatively cold blooded (komodos often need to burrow through the
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I'd be quite surprized if sauropodes did need to look for shade in hot days. Finding some could be quite a challenge.
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Re:FTFA (Score:4, Informative)
Were dinosaurs slow and lumbering, or quick and agile? It depends largely on whether they were cold or warm blooded. When dinosaurs were first discovered in the mid-19th century, paleontologists thought they were plodding beasts that had to rely on their environments to keep warm, like modern-day reptiles.
The writer is a moron.
No those paleontologists didn't fucking think that. The only damn reason the T. Rex in the American Museum of Natural History was mounted upright like that was because it was too damn heavy to mount with the backbone horizontal using the technology of the day.
Why the hell is there this general belief that people today are SOOO much smarter than people in the past?
I don't see the connection between the mounting position of a T.Rex and the speed or agileness of dinosaurs in general? The erect T-Rex doesn't look any more lumbering than a prone T-Rex to my untrained eye.
And is it really true that it takes modern structural materials to mount a t-rex horizontally? It seems like even in the early 1900's, they could have used a steel beam and cables to hang it if they really wanted to show it in a more horizontal position.
This reference says that scientists didn't discover until the 1970's that the upright position was not accurate, but it was because of biomechanics, not speed or agility.
http://landbeforetime.wikia.com/wiki/Tyrannosaurus [wikia.com]
Henry Fairfield Osborn, former president of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City, who believed the creature stood upright, further reinforced the notion after unveiling the first complete T. rex skeleton in 1915. It stood in this upright pose for nearly a century, until it was dismantled in 1992.[48] By 1970, scientists realized this pose was incorrect and could not have been maintained by a living animal, as it would have resulted in the dislocation or weakening of several joints, including the hips and the articulation between the head and the spinal column.[49]
Yo momma (Score:2)
Yo momma is so fat she heats the whole city by sheer mass.
metabolic vs. thermoregulated heat (Score:5, Interesting)
The point about body mass, if it's not clear, is that metabolism produces huge amounts of heat. When we digest food, about 50% of the energy that's released in converting complex molecules to carbon dioxide and water is released as heat. A huge animal can keep warm just from that. Mammals and birds maintain their temperature in a very narrow range. However, it's more complicated than just that would indicate: hibernating mammals (and one species of bird that hibernates) allow their temperature to fluctuate with the outside temperature. Likewise, there are reptiles that do some things to reduce their temperature variation, by seeking sunlight or shade, which is a type of active regulation. One current theory about dinosaurs and the evolution of feathers is that they showed up primarily as a thermoregulation system, providing insulation (particularly in rain) but allowing the animals to fluff their feathers to increase temperature losses to again actively thermoregulate.
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Given the whole square/cube thing about heat-producing volume vs heat-radiating surface area, it wouldn't surprise me if feathers developed as a way to keep juvenile dinos warm until they grew large enough that they didn't need them. Smaller dinos might have needed them all the time, but T. Rex "chicks" would have shed when they got larger.
You could be right. Many mammals -- cats and dogs, certainly -- are born essentially cold-blooded and will freeze to death if taken away from their mother and siblings, and don't start self-regulating their temperature for a day or so.
The thing with feathers being evolved to deal with rain was based on the observation by biologists studying hypothermia and different hibernation strategies, that it's pretty easy to stay warm if you're dry, and fairly easy to stay warm if it's snowing, but cold rain is extre
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What next? (Score:3)
Not a hard problem (Score:2)
After all those years, I'd think they'd be room temperature by now.
I'll lift ... (Score:2)