The Warm and Cold Blooded Nature of Dinosaurs :: Anthropology Essays Paleontology Papers

The Warm and Cold Blooded Nature of Dinosaurs The vie of whether dinosaurs were cold blooded or warm blooded has been ongoing since the number 1 of the century. At the turn of the century scientists believed that dinosaurs had long ramifications and were fairly slim, supporting the estimate of a cold blooded reptile. Recently, however, the bone structure, number or predators to prey, and limb position have suggested a warm blooded species. In addition, the fresh discovery of a fossilized dinosaur nerve center has supported the idea that dinosaurs were a warm blooded species. In this essay, I am going to feed supporting recount of dinosaurs being both warm and cold blooded. I will provide background randomness on the dinosaur that was discovered and what information it provides scientists. Until recently, scientists believed the chances of finding a fossilized dinosaur heart were extremely slim. The heart belonged to a 66 million year old dinosaur found in Ha rding County in Northwestern South Dakota. The dinosaur, found in 1993, weighed over 650 pounds and was 13 feet long. The dinosaur was in fairly good condition with the exception of the left side of the skeleton. The small, plant-eating(prenominal) Thescelosaurus, nicknamed Willo has been acquired by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Thescelosaurus was an ornithischian, or bird-hipped, dinosaur that lived in the latter deliver of the Cretaceous period. This was approximately 1 million years before the end up of the dinosaur era. Native to North America, its range extended from the northern United States up into Canada. Since using the 3-D software to reveal Willos heart, scientists have also utilize it to create 3-D images of the fossils skull, and of remains from other dinosaurs in the museums collection. (Fisher, Paul) A assemblage of scientists from North Carolina and Oregon used medical technology to search an iron-stained union inside the specimens chest. With the assistance of imaging equipment and software, they were able to touch on 3-dimensional structures through the interior of the concretion. The images reveal a heart that was more resembling that of a bird or a mammal than those of reptiles, significantly adding to evidence suggesting that at least some dinosaurs had high metabolic rates. In addition, the heart appears to have been four chambered with a single aorta, which is most unremarkably found in mammals or birds.