Scientists Can’t Agree If Dinosaurs Were Warm-Blooded Or Cold-Blooded

Scientists Can’t Agree If Dinosaurs Were Warm-Blooded Or Cold-Blooded

Paleontologists have spent a vast amount of time digging up dinosaur fossils, studying them, and then slating Jurassic Park. But despite the effort, some questions still remain about our predecessors on this planet — including whether or not they were cold-blooded.

One of the most recent papers to tackle this question was a 2014 study, published in Science, which came to the rather middle-of-the-road conclusion that dinosaurs were mesotherms, somewhere between warm and cold blooded. But, as Live Science documents in an excellent article, some scientists aren’t happy with the conclusions.

The study involved counting rings in fossilised dinosaur bones, which show signs of ageing in rings, just like trees. By examining the growth rate of dinosaurs, and comparing it to that of modern-day warm-and-cold-blooded animals, the team came to the conclusion that dinosarus were mesotherms — a conclusion disagreed with by Michael D’Emic, the author of a new study. He contends that the original authors didn’t analyse the data correctly, and that dinosaurs were really warm-blooded, just like mammals.

Naturally, the authors didn’t agree with his suggestions. The full back-and-forth — including some excellent (but very polite) scientific trash-talk — is over on Live Science, and is well worth a read. [Live Science]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.