Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-89wxm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-07T11:40:02.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Thermal Physiology of the Dinosauria: Evidence from Oxygen Isotopes in Bone Phosphate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2017

Reese E. Barrick*
Affiliation:
Department of Marine, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-8208
Get access

Extract

Dinosaurs were an abundant group of reptiles that originated in the mid-Triassic. They rapidly diversified, filling all of the ecological niches for large-bodied terrestrial vertebrates by the Late Triassic and dominated this landscape for 163 m.y. Yet due to the lack of direct evidence little is known about their metabolism. The question as to whether dinosaurs were “warm-blooded” or “cold-blooded” has been debated for over 25 years. Knowledge of dinosaur thermal physiology is critical if we are to understand how they lived and functioned. This knowledge can then be used to help answer questions regarding to their origin, diversification, and their eventual extinction. The question that is being resolved here is, “How do you stick a thermometer into dinosaur bone?”.

Type
Adaptations and Behavior
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bakker, R.T., 1980. Dinosaur heresy-dinosaur renaissance: Why we need endothermic archosaurs for a comprehensive theory of bioenergetic evolution, in Thomas, R.D.K. and Olson, E.C., eds., A Cold Look at the Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs, AAAS Symposium 28, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, p. 351461.Google Scholar
Bakker, R.T. 1986. The Dinosaur Heresies, William Morrow and Company, 482 p.Google Scholar
Bennett, A.F., and Ruben, J.A., 1979. Endothermy and activity in vertebrates: Science, v. 206, p. 649654.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benton, M.J., 1983. Dinosaur success in the Triassic: A noncompetetive ecological model: Quarterly Reviews in Biology, v. 58, p. 2955.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benton, M.J. 1986. The Late Triassic tetrapod extinction events, In Padian, K. (ed.), The Beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs: Cambridge University Press, New York, p. 303320.Google Scholar
Bird, R.T., 1944. A dinosaur walks into the museum: Natural History, v. 47, p. 7481.Google Scholar
Bligh, J. and Johnson, K.G., 1973. Glossary of terms for thermal physiology: Journal of Applied Physiology, v. 35, p. 941961 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cloudsley-Thompson, J.L., 1971. The Temperature and Water Relations of Reptiles: Merrow Technical Library, Watford, England, 159 p.Google Scholar
Cloudsley-Thompson, J.L., and Butt, D.K., 1977. Thermal balance in the tortoise and its relevance to dinosaur extinction: British Journal of Herpetology, v. 5, p. 641647.Google Scholar
Colbert, E.H., 1951. Environment of adaptation of certain dinosaurs: Biological Review, v. 26, 265284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorf, E., 1970. Paleobotanical evidence of Mesozoic and Cenozoic climatic changes: North American Paleontological Convention, Chicago, 1969, p. 323346.Google Scholar
Dunham, A.E., Overall, K.L., Porter, W.P., and Forster, C.A., 1980. Implications of ecological energetics and biophysical and developmental constraints for life-history variation in dinosaurs: Geological Society of America Special Paper 238, p. 119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farlow, J.O., 1980. Predator/Prey Biomass Ratios, Community Food Webs and Dinosaur Physiology: In Thomas, R.D.K. and Olson, E.C. (eds.), A Cold Look at the Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs, AAAS Symposium 28, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, p. 351461.Google Scholar
Farlow, J.O. 1990. Dinosaur energetics and thermal biology, In Weishampel, D., Dodson, P., and Osmolska, H. (eds.), The Dinosauria, p. 4355, University of California Press, p. 31–55.Google Scholar
Fedducia, A., 1974. Endothermy, dinosaurs and Archeopteryx: Evolution, v. 28, p. 503504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francillon-Vieillot, H., et al., 1990. Microstructure and mineralization of vertebrate skeletal tissues, In Carter, J.G. (ed.), Skeletal Biomineralization: Patterns, processes and evolutionary trends Volume 1, p. 471530.Google Scholar
Gasparini, Z. et al., 1987. Un ankylosaurio (Reptilia, Ornithischia) Campaniano en el Continente Antartico: Anais do X Congresso Brasileiro de Paleontologia, v. 1, p. 131141.Google Scholar
Gauthier, J.A., 1986. Saurischian monophyly and the origin of birds: p. 155, In Padian, K. (ed.), The Origin of Birds and the Evolution fo Flight: Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences, v. 8, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Greenberg, N., 1980. Physiological and Behavioral Thermoregulation in Living Reptiles: In Thomas, R.D.K. and Olson, E.C. (eds.), A Cold Look at the Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs, AAAS Symposium 28, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, p. 141166.Google Scholar
Hopson, J.A., 1980. Relative brain size in dinosaurs: implications for dinosaurian endothermy, In Thomas, R.D.K. and Olson, E.C. (eds.), A Cold Look at the Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs, AAAS Symposium 28, Westview Press, Boulder CO, pp. 287310.Google Scholar
Horner, J.R., and Lessem, D., 1993. The Complete T. rex: Simon & Schuster, New York, 238 p.Google Scholar
Hotton, N. III., 1980, An alternative to dinosaur endothermy: The happy wanderers, In Thomas, R.D.K. and Olson, E.C. (eds.), A Cold Look at the Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs, AAAS Symposium 28, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, p. 311350.Google Scholar
Longinelli, A., Nuti, S., 1973. Revised phosphate-water isotopic temperature scale: Earth Planetary Science Letters, v. 19, p. 373376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luz, B., Kolodny, Y., 1989, Oxygen isotope variation in bone phosphate: Applied Geochemistry, v. 4, p. 317324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, L.D., 1983. The origin and early radiation of birds, in Brush, A.H., and Clark, G.A. Jr. (eds.), Perspectives in Ornithology, Cambridge University Press, p. 291338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNab, B.K., and Auffenberg, W., 1976, The effect of large body size on the temperature regulation of the Komodo dragon, Varanus komodoensis : Comparative Biochemical Physiology, v. 55, p. 345350.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Norman, D.B., 1984. A systematic appraisal of the reptile order Ornithischia, In, Reif, W.E., and Westphal, F. (eds.), 3rd Symposium on Mesozoic Terrestrial Ecosystems Short Paper, Attempto Verlag, Tubingen, p. 157162.Google Scholar
Ostrom, J.H. 1980. The evidence for endothermy in dinosaurs, In Thomas, R.D.K. and Olson, E.C. (eds.), A Cold Look at the Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs, AAAS Symposium 28, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, p. 1554.Google Scholar
Parrish, J.M., Parrish, J.T., Hutchison, J.H., and Spicer, R.A., 1987. Late Cretaceous vertebrate fossils from the North Slope of Alaska and implications for dinosaur ecology: PALAIOS, v. 2, p. 377389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pflug, K.P., Schuster, K.D., Pichotka, J.P., and Forstel, H., 1979. Fractionation effects of oxygen isotopes in mammal, In, Klein, E.R., and Klein, P.D., (eds.), Stable Isotopes: Proceedings of the Third International Conference, Academic Press, p. 553561.Google Scholar
Pooley, A.C., and Gans, C., 1976. The Nile crocodile: Scientific American, v. 234, p. 114124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reid, R.E.H., 1985. On the supposed Haversian bone from the hadrosaur Anatosaurus, and the nature of compact bone in dinosaurs: Journal of Paleontology, v. 59, p. 140148.Google Scholar
Ricqles, A.J. De, 1980. Tissue structures of dinosaur bone: Functional significance and possible relation to dinosaur physiology, In Thomas, R.D.K. and Olson, E.C. (eds.), A Cold Look at the Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs, AAAS Symposium 28, Westview Press, Boulder CO, p. 103140.Google Scholar
Schoeller, D.A., et al., 1986. Doubly labeled water method: in vivo oxygen and hydrogen isotope fractionation: American Journal of Physiology, v. 251, R11371143.Google ScholarPubMed
Sloan, L., and Barron, E.J., 1990. “Equable” climates during Earth history?: Geology, v. 18, p. 489492.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spotila, J.R., Lommen, P., Bakken, G.S., Gates, D.M., 1973. A mathematical model for body temperatures of large reptiles: Implications for dinosaur ecology American Naturalist, v. 107, p. 391404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spotila, J.R., O'Connor, M.P., Dodson, P., Paladino, F.V., 1991. Hot and cold running dinosaurs: body size, metabolism and migration: Modern Geology, v. 16, p. 203227.Google Scholar
Templeton, J.R., 1970. Reptiles, In, Whittow, G.C. (ed.), Comparative Physiology of Thermoregulation 1, p. 167221.Google Scholar
Weishampel, D., Dodson, P., Osmolska, H., 1990. Dinosaurian Distribution, In, Weishampel, D., Dodson, P. and Osmolska, H. (eds.), The Dinosauria, University of California Press, p. 63140.Google Scholar
Wong, W.W. et al., 1988. In vivo isotope-fractionation factors and the measurement of deuterium- and oxygen-18-dilution spaces from plasma, urine, saliva, respiratory water vapor, and carbon dioxide: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, v. 47, p. 16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed