How Big Is Your Dinosaur?

[Tuckerfan]

Apparently, it depends upon where it lives.

Until now, most dinosaurs were thought to be warm-blooded, with a steady growth rate independent of environmental factors such as food.

But a study in Science magazine shows that at least one dinosaur came in “little and large” forms.

I can hear the palaeontologists now, “Oh great! Now I’ve got to throw out all my theories and start over from scratch! Stupid discoveries.” [Ron Popeil] But wait! There’s more! [/RP]

The plateosaur appears to be an intermediary form, somewhere between cold-blooded reptiles and warm-blooded mammals and birds.

Since the common reptilian ancestor of the dinosaurs, and their closest relatives, the pterosaurs, or flying reptiles, was believed to have been warm-blooded, the Bonn discovery could throw ideas about their evolution into disarray.

See, it’s stuff like this that makes me say we need a Manhattan-style project to clone dinosaurs, so we can settle this matter once and for all!