Dinosaurs were warm-blooded reptiles: Mammal bone study sheds light on dinosaur physiology
Thursday, June 28, 2012 - 11:01
in Paleontology & Archaeology
A study with extant mammals refutes the hypothesis on which the assumption that dinosaurs were ectotherms was based. The study analyzing the lines of arrested growth (LAG) in the bones of around a hundred ruminants, representative of the specific and ecological diversity of that group of mammals. The results show that the presence of these lines is not an indicator of an ectothermic physiology (does not generate internal heat), as had previously been thought, since all warm-blooded mammals have them. The study therefore dismantles the key argument of the hypothesis that dinosaurs could have been cold-blooded reptiles.