Warm-Blooded Dinosaur Groups Adapted Differently To Climate, Study Says

As many animals and birds now possess, the ability to control body temperature may have originated among certain dinosaurs around 180 million years ago, according to a study.

Dinosaurs Move

This new study examined how dinosaurs moved throughout different climates on Earth during the Mesozoic era (the dinosaur era lasting from 230 to 66 million years ago) by analyzing 1,000 fossils, climate models, geography, and dinosaur evolution.

Dinosaurs were thought to be slow-moving, "cold-blooded" creatures, similar to contemporary reptiles, that relied on solar heat to maintain their body temperature in the early 20th century.

During the Early Jurassic Period, scientists discovered that two of the three major dinosaur groups-theropods, which included species like T. Rex and Velociraptor-and Ornithischians, which included ancestors of the plant-eating stegosaurus and triceratops-moved to colder regions.

This implies that the animals may have acquired the capacity to produce heat internally at this point.

The results also show that sauropods, such as the diplodocus and brontosaurus, stayed in the planet's warmer regions.

Although more recent findings suggest that some of the creatures were probably able to produce their own body heat, the exact date of this adaptation is unknown.

"The adoption of endothermy, perhaps a result of this environmental crisis, may have enabled theropods and ornithischians to thrive in colder environments, allowing them to be highly active and sustain activity over longer periods, to develop and grow faster, and to produce more offspring," said first author Dr. Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza of UCL Earth Sciences.

Theropods also include birds, and the research indicates that this early Jurassic period may have been the genesis of birds' distinct ability to regulate body temperature.

Around this same period, sauropods, on the other hand, which remained in warmer areas, reached enormous sizes-yet another potential adaptation brought on by environmental pressure. These larger organisms may have remained active for longer because of their slower rate of heat loss due to their smaller surface area-to-volume ratio.

Read Also: Hot and Cold: Dinosaur Blood Couldn't Make Up its Mind

Climate And Dinosaurs

In order to consume richer foliage that isn't available in colder polar locations, the researchers also looked into the possibility that sauropods may have stayed at lower latitudes in the study.

Rather, scientists discovered that sauropods appeared to flourish in dry, savanna-like settings, bolstering the theory that their confinement to warmer regions was more closely linked to increased temperatures than to a colder-blooded physiology. Polar regions were warmer and had an abundance of vegetation during that period.

Large portions of the earth were covered by the eruption of lava and volcanic gases from protracted fissures in the earth's surface, which led to the Jenkyns event.

According to co-author Dr. Juan L. Cantalapiedra of the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid, Spain, there appears to be a strong correlation between climate and dinosaur evolution in this study.

"It sheds new light on how birds might have inherited a unique biological trait from dinosaur ancestors and the different ways dinosaurs adapted to complex and long-term environmental changes," he added.

Related Article: Dinosaurs Were Warm-Blooded?