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The Pros And Cons Of Dinosaurs

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Dinosaurs (Gk. deinos, meaning "terrible," "potent," or "fearfully great") are a diverse group of animals belonging to the clade Dinosauria. The taxon Dinosauria was named in 1842 by paleontologist Sir Richard Owen. They first appeared during the Triassic period and most of them became extinct after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event (end of Mesozoic Era).
There are several opinions about the life-style, metabolism and temperature regulation of dinosaurs. Among them, there is a huge controversy whether dinosaurs were cold-blooded or warm-blooded. For a long period scientists believed that dinosaurs were cold-blooded. But some new researches cast serious doubts about this and claim that they were actually warm-blooded like birds and mammals.
Arguments in favour of …show more content…

So, dinosaurs may be cold-blooded and maintain their body temperature with the help of environmental temperature.
4) Terrestrial endotherms have “respiratory turbinates” in their skull which helps them in retaining moisture during respiration process. But studies show that dinosaurs had no such structure in their skull. So, they were cold-blooded.
Arguments in favour of the concept that dinosaurs were mesothermic:
Some biologists after their studies concluded that dinosaurs were neither cold-blooded nor warm-blooded. Dinosaurs were mesothermic i.e. they can regulate their body temperature but their internal temperature did not remain fixed. As for example, New Mexico biologist and author John Grady supported this concept.
Arguments in favour of Dinosaurs as warm-blooded animals:
1) Some dinosaurs showed mammalian behaviours which is not possible if they were not warm-blooded.
2) Microscopic analysis of some dinosaur bones showed many similarities (such as growth rate) with the bones of mammals and birds which witness endothermic nature of dinosaurs. Paleontologist Michael D’Emic, in a new study (published in Science), supports this

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