Body Temperatures of Dinosaurs Measured for First Time: Some Dinosaurs Were as Warm as Most Modern M

Were dinosaurs slow and lumbering, or quick and agile? It depends largely on whether they were cold or warm blooded. When dinosaurs were first discovered in the mid-19th century, paleontologists thought they were plodding beasts that had to rely on their environments to keep warm, like modern-day reptiles. But research during the last few decades suggests that they were faster creatures, nimble like the velociraptors or T. rex depicted in the movie Jurassic Park, requiring warmer, regulated body temperatures like in mammals.

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reply to post by Schmidt1989


This is fascinating! It astonishes me the ingenuity some of our species manage to employ in discovering things about a time and place that are no more. Truly awesome to hear and hopefully (the little kid in me is taking over here) will lead to a renewal in dinosaur movies. They were my favourite thing in the whole world as a kid and still excite me today. If only I hadn't wasted my youth focusing on the arts and history, I might have been able to jump into the sciences and be part of such discoveries.

Cheers OP.

I find this fascinating. Nothing excites me more than when science is proven wrong. It only makes science that much more fun and interesting!

What was once considered to be impossible, we have now read the body temperatures of dinosaurs. How invasive and cool is that!?

Now before you go, "Okay. Big deal." It should be noted that one of the theories behind the question, "Why were dinosaurs so big?" was that dinosaurs were luke-warm blooded creatures. That it, they weren't warm blooded nor were they cool blooded.

We now know they were warm blooded. Since the mid 1800s, people have debated the blood temperature of dinosaurs. Finally, the mystery about dinosaurs has finally come to an end... or has it?

I believe cold-blooded animals are much more quicker than warm-blooded animals when the time comes and also much more efficient at conserving energy levels from their bodies.

This discovery would mean that dinosaurs had much more erratic behaviour and were more primitive than their contemporary counterparts; the reptiles.

A diplodocus.

I've always believed they were more related to birds than the reptiles and amphibians. Some fossils this to be true in their relation. Interesting news.

reply to post by Schmidt1989


if they were related to birds than i wouldnt be supprised if they were warm blooded

reply to post by Schmidt1989

This really is old news.

The idea of warm blooded reptiles is nothing new. I heard about this close to 30 years ago. But now they have some proof to that fact. I find that really interesting. The big mystery to me is how some of them go so big without being crushed under their own weight or sinking into the ground. It is as if the gravity was not as strong back then or something?

reply to post by fixer1967


Exactly. The big elephant in the room is that, it is impossible at present gravity, for anything to get so big. Your Diplodocus or Tyrannosaurus would not have been able to stand up, and their bones would break and their lungs be crushed even lying on the ground.

Either gravity was not so strong back then, and therefore WTF is gravity, we understand nothing, or the fossil bones have somehow grown, and the dinosaurs really weren't so big (I find this the more likely of the two).

Originally posted by fixer1967
The idea of warm blooded reptiles is nothing new. I heard about this close to 30 years ago. But now they have some proof to that fact. I find that really interesting. The big mystery to me is how some of them go so big without being crushed under their own weight or sinking into the ground. It is as if the gravity was not as strong back then or something?

Uh, no? It's the same as if an ant and an elephant are standing side by side. The elephant is vastly larger, but doesn't influence the ground he stand on any more than the ant does, because the weight (albeit more) is evenly distributed.

My guess, is that large dinosaurs had a bigger bone structure, to support there heavy bodies. Most of the dinosaurs were warm blooded, but they did not have the exact warm blooded traits of the human race.