Were dinosaurs cold blooded or warm blooded?

Question

This is a question much to be debated. I still want to know the real answer.

P.S. I hope this question fits in the right category.

Answer 1

warm blooded. but i think it depends because i bet some dinosaurs are cold blooded too.  

Answer 2

Proved conclusively that they were mainly warm blooded.

Answer 3

It's entirely possible that certain genera of dinosaur were ectothermic and others were endothermic.  For example, the large herds of ornithischians like Miasaurus and the huge sauropods like Apatosaurus had to have travelled huge distances to find food, because one locality could not sustain that many or that large of an animal for very long.  There isn't a single animal that migrates as such that is cold-blooded.  Certain theropods, specifically the non-avian ones, might have been cold-blooded if they hunted ambush-style like modern crocodillians, but there is also evidence of bird-like morphology in animals like Deinonychus which would suggest warm-bloodedness.  Read Dr. Bob Bakker's The Dinosaur Heresies.

Answer 4

Due to this inequity between the evidence, almost all contemporary palaeontologists support the warm-blooded position

Answer 5

Well, if I remember the essay I wrote for my vertebrate evolution exam a couple of months ago (for which I got a mark of 75 for, woo), there is no conclusive answer. There are arguments for and against both, but no argument is without it's flaws. For example there is the comparison between dinosaurs and modern reptiles, which are of course cold blooded. But then how do you explain the fact that many dinosaurs lived at the south pole; yes the area was a LOT warmer at the time but it still had long winters of darkness and cooler temperatures. Maybe they migrated? Possibly, but all of them? No.

Then there are bone growth patterns (I forget the technical term); many dino bones show bone growth more in line with modern warm blooded animals than cold.

There is evidence to suggest that many dinos were capable of achieving and, more importantly, maintaining speeds that would be impossible for cold blooded animals. Posture is a key aspect too; many dinosaurs had their heads above their bodies, unlike modern reptiles, which suggests they had a circulatory system more akin to warm blooded animals.

The commonly held view nowadays is that dinosaurs were neither cold blooded nor warm blooded but somewhere in between; they were homeothermic, capable of maintaining steady internal temperatures but not producing the body heat as warm blooded animals do. Given the size of many dinosaurs this is entirely likely as size is of key importance when considering rates of heat loss.

As you can see this debate continues and it's unlikely we'll know for sure soon, but there is plenty of literature on the subject, from general interest textbooks to scientific studies. Hope this has helped and sorry if some of it isn't as clear as it could be; I thought as hard as I could on it but it is 4am here after all...

Answer 6

Impossible to know the answer 100%, but most scientist agree that since dinosaurs were reptiles, they were most likely ectothermic (cold-blooded).

Some scientist try to debate a warm-blooded theory based on beliefs and 'gut feelings.' alligators and crocodiles can regulate their internal temperature to a degree, but not anywhere close to what a mammal can do. Some scientist use these reptiles as a comparison to dinosaurs, so these theories are normally based off alligators and crocodiles.

My personal belief is they were a hybrid. Capable of some regulation much like alligators and crocodiles, but mostly cold-blooded. Also think of evolution, reptile-birds could have evolved differently than a dinosaur that lived primarily on land. So it is possible that some dinosaurs were warm-blooded and others were cold-blooded, while some could have been a bit of both.

The fact is.. nobody knows for sure.

Answer 7

debates, love them.  the latest theory is they may have been moving toward warm blooded when they were wiped out.