[Geology2] Re: Were Dinosaurs Warm Or Cold-Blooded?

"Nova" had an episode on "Polar Dinosaurs", which looked at the
signficant possibility that they were at least quasi warm blooded, and
suggested that homeothermy/heterothermy might be somewhat of a continuum
as opposed to a strict dichotomy.

Lin wrote:

<http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2010/05/100524151428-large.jpg>

*The Caltech-led team first tested their method for directly measuring
the body temperatures of vertebrates on teeth from living animals, such
as elephants and sharks. (Credit: Caltech/Robert Eagle)

Were Dinosaurs Warm Or Cold-Blooded?

First Method for Directly Measuring
Body Temperatures of Extinct Vertebrates

ScienceDaily (May 25, 2010) � Was Tyrannosaurus rex cold-blooded? Did
birds regulate their body temperatures before or after they began to
grow
feathers? Why would evolution favor warm-bloodedness when it has such a
high energy cost?

Questions like these -- about when, why, and how vertebrates stopped
relying
on external factors to regulate their body temperatures and began
heating
themselves internally -- have long intrigued scientists.

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