Were dinosaurs warm-blooded, like birds and mammals, or cold-blooded, like reptiles? It’s one of paleontology’s oldest questions, and finding an answer is important because it reveals how prehistoric organisms may have lived and behaved.
Research over the last three decades has revealed that certain dinosaurs were likely birdlike, with feathers and maybe the ability to create their own body heat, contradicting the widely held belief that they were all sluggish, lumbering lizards that basked in the sun to regulate their body temperature.
Were dinosaurs warm-blooded, like birds and mammals, or cold-blooded, like reptiles? It’s one of paleontology’s oldest questions, and finding an answer is important because it reveals how prehistoric organisms may have lived and behaved.
Research over the last three decades has revealed that certain dinosaurs were likely birdlike, with feathers and maybe the ability to create their own body heat, contradicting the widely held belief that they were all sluggish, lumbering lizards that basked in the sun to regulate their body temperature.
However, it’s hard to find evidence that unquestionably shows what dinosaur metabolisms were like. Clues from dinosaur eggshells and bones have suggested that some dinosaurs were warm-blooded and others were not.
A new study published in the journal Current Biology on Wednesday suggested that three main dinosaur groups adapted differently to changes in temperature, with the ability to regulate body temperature evolving in the early Jurassic Period about 180 million years ago.
Based on remains from 1,000 dinosaur species and paleoclimate data, the new study examined the distribution of dinosaurs across various ecosystems on Earth during the dinosaur era, which began approximately 235 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago when an asteroid collided with Earth.
Two of the three main families — meat-eating theropod dinosaurs, including T. rex, and plant-eating ornithischians, including Triceratops and Stegosaurus — moved to cooler regions during the early Jurassic Period, according to the study. The study says, these dinosaurs may have evolved endothermy, which is the ability to generate body heat inside.
