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FAQs
Dinosaurs
What did dinosaurs eat?
Some dinosaurs were carnivores (meat-eaters), others were insectivores (insect-eaters),and others herbivores (plant-eaters). A few dinosaurs may even have been omnivorous, with teeth adapted for eating both meat and plant material.
"Some dinosaurs ate lizards, turtles, eggs, or early mammals. Some hunted other dinosaurs or scavenged dead animals. Most, however, ate plants (but not grass, which hadn't evolved yet). Rocks that contain dinosaur bones also contain fossil pollen and spores that indicate hundreds to thousands of types of plants existed during the Mesozoic Era. Many of these plants had edible leaves, including evergreen conifers (pine trees, redwoods, and their relatives), ferns, mosses, horsetail rushes, cycads, ginkgos, and in the latter part of the dinosaur age flowering (fruiting) plants. Although the exact time of origin for flowering plants is still uncertain, the last of the dinosaurs certainly had fruit available to eat."
To find out more:
Were dinosaurs cold or warm-blooded?
This question has generated a lot of debate in the scientific community. We have summarised some of the arguments from several websites. To read the full explanations, click on the website addresses provided.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1
&q=were+dinosaurs+warm-blooded%3F
- Dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex and Diplodocus were not mammals. They were not birds. There are significant differences between these groups. Since we have no dinosaurs alive today (except for birds, which have about 145 million years of evolutionary separation from non-avian dinosaurs), it is hard to compare them with anything living whose metabolism we understand.
- We are only now beginning to understand living mammal and bird metabolism. Understanding dinosaur metabolism is complicated by our lack of knowledge of modern animal metabolism.
- The issue is a tangled, complex one. There are not just two sides to the issue; there are numerous competing hypotheses. If you're looking for a major controversy in science, look no further!
Were dinosaurs warm-blooded?
Once it was thought that all dinosaurs were cold-blooded - now many suggest that at least some were warm-blooded, which would help to explain why they became so plentiful and dominant for so long. The ability to control body temperature and maintain it at a constant value (ie warm-blooded) is a very large advantage. Not only does it mean that the animal is not dependent on the environmental temperature but can hunt at any time of the day (or night), or in any season, but it also means operating at maximum efficiency. The question is yet to be decided, but on balance the likely outcome seems to be heavily weighted in favour of at least partially warm-blooded dinosaurs.
http://www.isgs.uiuc.edu/dinos/de_4/5c51d90.htm
Warm-blooded vs. Cold-blooded
http://www.arts-letters.com/dino2/ency/DINOTHRY08.html
It was once believed that all dinosaurs were cold-blooded, like present-day reptiles. But much of their structure and behaviour was more like that of warm-blooded animals than modern reptiles. There are, in fact, many puzzling characteristics of dinosaurs that are not mysterious - if you assume they were warm-blooded.
Were dinosaurs warm-blooded?
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dinosaurs/warmblood.html
Scientists have conflicting opinions on this subject. Some palaeontologists think that all dinosaurs were "warm-blooded" in the same sense that modern birds and mammals are. Other scientists think that this is unlikely. Some scientists think that very big dinosaurs could have had warm bodies because of their large body size. It may be that some dinosaurs were warm-blooded. The problem is that it is hard to find evidence that unquestionably shows what dinosaur metabolism was like.
Were dinosaurs warm-blooded or cold-blooded?
http://www.childrensmuseum.org/kinetosaur/e2.html#q2
If dinosaurs were warm-blooded or cold-blooded, there is no definite answer. For many years, scientists thought all dinosaurs were cold-blooded. Then, in the 1970s, scientists begin to look at some evidence indicating that dinosaurs may be warm-blooded. More recent studies, however, indicate that dinosaurs were neither warm-blooded like mammals nor cold-blooded like reptiles, but in between.
Were North Slope dinosaurs "warm-blooded" or "cold-blooded"?
http://www.ak.blm.gov/ak930/akdino.html#Blooded
In the past, palaeontologist assumed that all dinosaurs were cold-blooded like today's reptiles. But beginning in the1960s, some scientists began raising the possibility that some dinosaurs were warm-blooded. It may be that dinosaurs had a unique type of metabolism unlike any living animals today.
Other links
References
- Beland, P., and Russell, D. A., 1980, 'Dinosaur Metabolism and Predator/Prey Ratios in the Fossil Record', in Thomas, D. K., and Olson, E. C., eds, A Cold Look at the Warm Blooded Dinosaurs: Washington, D.C., American Association for the Advancement of Science, p. 82-105.
Copyright © Australian Museum 2002
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