ScienceDaily (June 28, 2012) — A study with extant mammals refutes the hypothesis on which the assumption that dinosaurs were ectotherms was based.
The work was carried out by researchers from Institut Català de Paleontologia (ICP) and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). It has been published in Nature.
The study analysing the lines of arrested growth (LAG) in the bones of around a hundred ruminants, representative of the specific and ecological diversity of that group of mammals. The results show that the presence of these lines is not an indicator of an ectothermic physiology (does not generate internal heat), as had previously been thought, since all warm-blooded mammals have them. The study therefore dismantles the key argument of the hypothesis that dinosaurs could have been cold-blooded reptiles.
The work was carried out by Meike Köhler, ICREA researcher and ICP palaeontologist; Ronny Aanes, researcher from the Norwegian Polar Institute; Nekane Marín, PhD student at the UAB and Xavier Jordana, lecturer of postgraduate studies at same university.
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