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Course: American Museum of Natural History > Unit 1
Lesson 2: How do scientists study dinosaurs?- Where in the world did dinosaurs live?
- Where in the world did dinosaurs live?
- Did dinosaurs travel in herds or packs?
- Did dinosaurs travel in herds or packs?
- How fast were dinosaurs?
- Were dinosaurs warm-blooded?
- Were dinosaurs warm-blooded?
- How fast did dinosaurs grow, and how long did they live?
- How fast did dinosaurs grow, and how long did they live?
- What was dinosaur skin like?
- What color were extinct dinosaurs?
- What color were extinct dinosaurs?
- What were the biggest and smallest dinosaurs?
- Did dinosaurs fight?
- How did dinosaurs reproduce?
- How intelligent were dinosaurs?
- New research points to dinosaurs' colorful past
- New dinosaur research: Microraptor's feather color revealed
- Quiz: How do scientists study dinosaurs?
- Exploration Questions: How do scientists study dinosaurs?
- Answers to Exploration Questions: How do scientists study dinosaurs?
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Were dinosaurs warm-blooded?
One approach to this question is to look at the microscopic structure of bone. In many cold-blooded animals, bone grows in dense, concentric rings. In warm-blooded animals, a complex system of closely spaced cavities, called the Haversian system, permeates the bone. By cutting bones of extinct, non-avian dinosaurs into thin slices and examining them under the microscope, we can look for these characteristics. In most non-avian dinosaurs, the microstructure of the bone looks more like that of warm-blooded animals, but the evidence is not conclusive. Created by American Museum of Natural History.
Want to join the conversation?
- Why dont birds have long names if they are a type of dinosaur(6 votes)
- All animals that we've identified have scientific names, complete with a genus and species, but we use their common names more often because they're easier to remember and say. The 'turkey' is Meleagris gallopavo, for instance.(9 votes)
- is there any Cold Blooded dinosaur ?(4 votes)
- Um... They're reptiles, although we're not 100% sure, I think it's safe to say that a lot of them were cold-blooded.(2 votes)
- What are the advantages of cold-bloodedness versus warm-bloodedness?(1 vote)
- Warm blooded animals tend to have much higher metabolisms, making them much more active, but meaning they have to take in more food to sustain the metabolism.
Cold blooded animals tend to be much less active, and take in less food.(1 vote)
Video transcript
There are two different kinds of metabolisms
we ascribe to animals today, warm-blooded like us humans are creatures that control their
body temperatures, body temperatures tend to be warm, we're at ninety eight point six and our body temperature doesn't vary,
unless we're sick, it doesn't vary with the outside
temperature. Lizards, and a lot of other kinds of
animals, of course, are what we call cold-blooded, not really cold-blooded technically, but what that
means is their body temperatures, internal body
temperature is much more labile, much more sensitive to the environment, when it's cold outside, their body temperature is cold, when it's hot their body temperature warms up. What
were dinosaurs? Well we don't really know the answer to that question, actually based on some of the evidence
of posture and locomotion we actually think that some of these more predatory
dinosaurs might've been warm-blooded, whereas some of the larger
vegetarian animals might have been cold-blooded, but we don't know that directly. But one thing is certain, that birds are warm-blooded animals and
birds are a kind of dinosaur so somewhere in the evolution of
dinosaurs warm-bloodedness eveolved. Maybe in those
dinosaurs that aren't strictly classified as birds, maybe Tyrannosaurus was warm-blooded, we don't know that for
sure but it's a good supposition.