Dinosaurs Were Probably Warm-Blooded, Incredibly Athletic, and Always Hungry

Just one more reason to revere Jurassic Park : a new study has found that , unlike modern - day reptile , dinosaur were probable warm - blooded . It ’s a trait that suggests dinosaurs were far from lumbering reptiles , and were in reality quite the prehistoric jock .

The sketch , published inPLoS ONE , looks at whether dinosaur were poikilothermic ( insensate - blooded ) , like modern - day reptile , or endothermic ( fond - blooded ) like hiss and mammal . Endothermic creature are more athletic than poikilotherm , and are better able-bodied to survive in colder climates . But the bribe is that endotherms must consume more solid food than poikilotherm because of their higher metabolisms .

Thus , the study authors examined the physiology of dinosaurs to find out whether the free energy they would have spend exceed what an heterothermic system could supply . Herman Pontzer of Washington University in St Louis has studied the relationship between the cost of locomotion and the length of an fauna ’s leg . He has found that distance of peg predicts the price of locomotion with 98 percent accuracy in various land mammals , and estimate the length of various dinosaur legs based on fossil records . He and his colleagues count at anatomical models of 14 coinage of dinosaur and compare the estimated cost of locomotion with those of modern - day endotherms and poikilotherm . They found that the cost of locomotion was similar to that endotherms experience , and that walking and run would have consumed too much vigor for dinosaurs to be cold - blooded . The findings indicate that dinosaur were , in fact , powerful athlete — and that they ask a constant supply of nutrient to maintain their energy .

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