Warm Blooded Versus Cold Blooded Dinosaurs
At a time, scientists believed all dinosaurs were cold-blooded. However, with a recent discovery of a dinosaur found with a fossilized heart in the northern part of South Dakota in 1993, many paleontologists are starting to think that there were some dinosaurs that were warm blooded.
Dinosaurs were first believed to be cold-blooded because they were thought to be related closely to reptiles which are cold-blooded creatures. Cold-blooded animals don’t actually have “cold” blood, instead they rely on the temperature from their environment to regulate their own body temperature. They do this by taking advantage of external heat by basking in the sun, and by lying in the shade to cool down. A more correct term is “ectothermic” which means “heat from outside.” On the other hand, a warm-blooded animal creates heat internally by chemical reactions inside their body. They are able to regulate their body temperature internally instead of relying on their environment. Author of the article, “Dinosaurs: Warm or Cold Blooded?” Beverly Eschberger explains, “endothermic animals have a continually high requirement for food to fuel the heat generation. Providing they can find food their constantly-optimum body temperature means that they can stay active even when it is very cold” (par 3). Even though it was believed that dinosaurs were closely related to cold-blooded reptiles, most dinosaurs had similar behaviors of a bird which is a warm blooded animal. Believing dinosaurs were warm blooded would help explain the reason why dinosaurs were so dominant and plentiful for such a long period of time. There are many other factors that play a vital role in ...
... middle of paper ...
...s: Cold vs. Warm-Blooded?” 15 Dec. 2000
<http://www.suite101.com/articlefim/4003/5490>.
Russell, Dale A. “Cardiovascular Evidence For An Intermediate or Higher Metabolic Rate In An Ornithischian.” Science Vol 288 (2000): 503-505. 23 April 2000 <http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/288/5465/503>.
“Warm Blooded vs. Cold Blooded.” Dino Database. 2004. Arts and Letters Corporation 2004 <http://www.dinodatabase.com/dinothry08.asp>.
“Were Dinosaurs Warm or Cold Blooded?” BBC News 5 April 2004
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/howdoweknow/965.shtml>.
“66 Million–Year–Old Dino With A Heart.” Media Kit 17 April 2000. North Carolina University. 2000 <http://www.dinoheart.org/mediakit/index.html>.
“66 Million–Year–Old Dinosaur With A Heart.” Science Daily 4 April 2000
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/04/0042/083923.htm>.
W. H. Freeman and Company, New York. 2) http://www.trueauthority.com/dinosaurs/about.htm 3) Dr. Robert Riesz, University of Toronto, “Ceratopsia and Ornithopoda” http://www.erin.utoronto.ca/w
...r optimum temperatures, hot climate caused the dinosaurs to heat up beyond their optimum. However, the heat didn’t kill them, but sterilized the males, because their testes functioned at certain temperatures. Gould argues that this theory is untestable, and the experiments with the influence of extreme temperatures on modern alligators do not necessarily explain the extinction of dinosaurs. Furthermore, many questions are not answered because of the absence of evidence. Gould states that this theory is another example of bad science.
More reliable data can be obtained if more techniques are used to measure metabolic rate. By measuring the heat flow from an organism to its surroundings using a calorimeter, a more accurate metabolic rate can be measured (De V. Weir, 1949). The ratio of the quantity of food an animal consumes and the amount it excretes can also indicate the metabolic rate of that animal (Paradis et al., n.d.). Determining the water flux in animals with tritium labelled water is another valid method of measuring metabolic rates (Paradis et al., n.d.).
Of course it was the movie Jurassic Park who seemed to coin the phrase “Dino DNA.” This movie gave the public the thought that, a) it is possible to find dinosaur DNA and b) we can clone dinosaurs from this DNA. This essay is not going to pick apart Jurassic Park’s scientific value, however it will share the current knowledge and information on dinosaur DNA. The discovery of DNA is important because it may uncover different bits of information. The idea of cloning dinosaurs, especially at this point is out of the question. It is really hard to clone living animals today, with full DNA and genome strands, we can’t even think about recreating animals millions of years ago.
Garcia, Mariano & John R. Hutchinson “Tyrannosaurus was not a Fast Runner” Nature Journal 415 (Feb 28,2002): 1018-1021
Yolen, J., & Teague, M. (2007). How do dinosaurs go to school? New York, NY: Scholastic.
We use dinosaurs to represent the changes in nature that have occurred throughout time. Studies found that although the “oldest rock did not show evidence of life, the progression of plant and animal life that changed in recognizable intervals, from ancient life, age of reptiles to the age of mammals” (Dino Nature Metaphor, slide 6), measured the age of the earth. When we think of dinosaurs in relation to nature, we think of that very powerful force that controls the cycle of life. Nature was able to yield such magnificent ferocious creatures that walked the earth and then take them back when they served nature’s purpose. Dinosaurs fit perfectly in nature’s constant
The debate of whether dinosaurs were cold blooded or warm blooded has been ongoing since the beginning of the century. At the turn of the century scientists believed that dinosaurs had long limbs and were fairly slim, supporting the idea of a cold blooded reptile. Recently, however, the bone structure, number or predators to prey, and limb position have suggested a warm blooded species. In addition, the recent discovery of a fossilized dinosaur heart has supported the idea that dinosaurs were a warm blooded species. In this essay, I am going to give supporting evidence of dinosaurs being both warm and cold blooded. I will provide background information on the dinosaur that was discovered and what information it provides scientists.
The Triceratops was living in the late Cretaceous Era. It lived about 68 to 65 million years ago. The Triceratops were said to live in the Wyoming, Colorado, and Canadian area, where they have cold winters. The Tyrannosaurs dominated all of their prey in North America at that time. Also giant penguin-like marine animals called Polycotylid Plesiosaurs appeared in the oceans towards the south. The Earth was still dominated by dinosaurs at that time. During the late Cretaceous Era, North America was slowly moving westwards, whic...
"since feeling is first" is a free verse poem and the speaker is specific persona created by the author. The persona that Cumming created is a man deeply in love. This poem has 16 lines in total and is structured in stanzaic form. The stanzas are grouped together with syntax errors. There is no proper punctuation which makes the reader confused of making pauses. There is enjambment; where the lines are broken after a completion of thought. For instance, stanza one contains four lines and those four lines have no proper punctuation. To make sense of that stanza, it should be read together. The author has purposely made this syntax error because he compares life to a paragraph (line 15). He had to show that life is not structured like a paragraph. Life lacks the logical order the paragraph contains. The speaker of this poem is a man who is in love and believes that there is nothing better. The tone of the speaker is romantic and realization. Literally, the speaker is in love and he thinks nothing is greater than love. There is nothing that can come among love. Figuratively, the poem is about the people forgetting to realize the great things in life because they pay attention to trivial matter and tend to lose something prom...
Jane, Austen,. Emma complete, authoritative text with biographical, historical, and cultural contexts, critical history, and essays from contemporary critical perspectives. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002.
As President Lincoln once said, “Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing,” too often mankind are too quick to judge others by their appearance rather than who they truly are (Good Reads). Often times, people judge one another not solely by their character that is the true indicator of who they are but by their reputation or appearance. Throughout the novel, Emma, by Jane Austen the themes of appearance vs. reality, marriage and confinement of women, and social status are portrayed through characters such as Emma, Harriet, and Mr. Knightley.
When Emma plans her wedding to Charles, the readers learn: "Emma would have preferred to be married at midnight by torchlight" (p. 22). Instead, she settles for a traditional wedding. Charles adores Emma: "He was happy, without a care in the world…" (p. 28). Charles realized that he "possessed, for life, this pretty wife whom he adored" (p. 29). Emma, on the other hand, feels differently. Through the narrator, the readers learn her inner thoughts:
In conclusion, the sublime and the beautiful are major topics in romantic poems and novels. Different authors bring out the different ways they can be seen and interpreted. In the novel Frankenstein and the poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, the sublime and the beautiful are shown through the feelings and the mind of the main characters. In the poem “Mont Blanc,” the sublime is shown through the complexity of nature and how man will never truly be able to understand it. In order to have something beautiful there must be something sublime, and in order for they’re to be something sublime there must be something beautiful.
Reptiles are vertebrate, or backboned animals constituting the class Reptilia and are characterized by a combination of features, none of which alone could separate all reptiles from all other animals.The characteristics of reptiles are numerous, therefore can not be explained in great detail in this report. In no special order, the characteristics of reptiles are: cold-bloodedness; the presence of lungs; direct development, without larval forms as in amphibians; a dry skin with scales but not feathers or hair; an amniote egg; internal fertilization; a three or four-chambered heart; two aortic arches (blood vessels) carrying blood from the heart to the body, unlike mammals and birds that only have one; a metanephric kidney; twelve pairs of cranial nerves; and skeletal features such as limbs with usually five clawed fingers or toes, at least two spinal bones associated with the pelvis, a single ball-and-socket connection at the head-neck joint instead of two, as in advanced amphibians and mammals, and an incomplete or complete partition along the roof of the mouth, separating the food and air passageways so that breathing can continue while food is being chewed. These and other traditional defining characteristics of reptiles have been subjected to considerable modification in recent times. The extinct flying reptiles, called pterosaurs or pterodactyls, are now thought to have been warm-blooded and covered with hair. Also, the dinosaurs are also now considered by many authorities to have been warm-blooded. The earliest known bird, archaeopteryx, is now regarded by many to have been a small dinosaur, despite its covering of feathers The extinct ancestors of the mammals, the therapsids, or mammallike reptiles, are also believed to have been warm-blooded and haired.