Vivian on 18/11/2009 at 19:02
I recently did some work on endothermy in dinosaurs (I saw 'I' - I basically contributed some measurements to someone elses cleverness), which has (
http://www.google.co.uk/search?rlz=1C1CHMI_enGB353GB353&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=warm+blooded+dinosaurs+pontzer) attracted some internet interest. Wahoo for me! The funny thing is, the majority of these sites will have been written by journalists who are presumably being paid, and they are quoting the press release I wrote pretty much word for word! Maybe I should ask for a percentage.
Anyway, the punchline is that these long-legged beasties with feathery insulation and silly-fast growth rates were warm blooded. Suprise!
We caught it before it went out, but one journalist sent us a write-up for review which had switched 'dinosaurs were likely to have been endothermic' for 'dinosaurs were likely to have been exothermic'. Hah.
Hewer on 18/11/2009 at 19:34
Awesome. I think I've been over what a nerd I am for dinosaur stuff the last time you posted something like this. Thanks for the link(s) and congratulations to you.
smallfry on 18/11/2009 at 21:38
The article is titled "Warm-blooded dinosaurs worked up a sweat" but I didn't read anything about dinosaurs actually sweating (omg that sounds sooo hot though...). We've long speculated that dinos are warm-blooded, but if so, how did the large ones keep from overheating (too much mass, not enough surface area)?
Vivian on 18/11/2009 at 21:43
Either limited endothermy, like marsupials, or kind of endothermy-by-default or 'inertial endothermy': like you say, they're so damn big that they're endothermic whether they want to be or not, so the ecology of heat production is less of an issue if you're gigantic. You still need to evolve a new set of metabolic enzymes etc to deal with the higher body temperatures, which is interesting.
Spanner in the works of that theory is the extensive air cavities all big dinos have throughout their bodies - these are linked to the outside, so could potentially extend the surface area for heat loss and particularly evaporative heat-loss extensively. There was a theory that birds use their air-sacs for evaporative cooling, but I'm not sure its ever been proved.
Aerothorn on 18/11/2009 at 22:18
Tell them about the crocodiles!
Awesome stuff, though. I'm likely destined for a future in academia myself. Hopefully at the MIT Game Lab!
demagogue on 18/11/2009 at 23:43
Cool beans. :D
I always seem to be researching environmental disasters or major human rights abuses.
I imagine dino physiology is a bit more uplifting.
Chade on 18/11/2009 at 23:55
Knowing what happened, would you really consider it uplifting? :o
That's awesome, Viv. Just how out of date is my childhood memory of "dinosaur = gigantic brown lizard", anyway?
theBlackman on 19/11/2009 at 00:13
Nail them for Plagarism. Better yet send them a note (Email or snail) saying that if they don't credit the article you wrote, they will be hearing from your lawyer.
Enclose copies of the direct quotes from your initial article, compared with thiers.
Renzatic on 19/11/2009 at 00:15
Probably very. I think calling them giant featherless scaly skinned birds is more apt.
Tocky on 19/11/2009 at 03:50
So T Rex had to be endothermic. Look at those drumsticks. Good for quick sprints from cover while following herd animals as a lion does. Only I can't imagine much stealth-stalking involved. Maybe run ahead and wait. Whales are primarily endothermic and they evolved from land right? Suppose they had some shapely gams once upon? Any atrophied sweat glands there?
When I think of dinos though, the thing which keeps running through my mind is whether or not soft pink me would last 10 minutes.
(
http://s681.photobucket.com/albums/vv174/NGCalfee/?action=view¤t=101.jpg)
Inline Image:
http://i681.photobucket.com/albums/vv174/NGCalfee/th_101.jpgLikely not. I do like the thought of making them sweat for it though. Congrats on your research.
