T. Rex Ran a Body Temperature of 97 Degrees
T. Rex Had a Body Temperature of 97 Degrees
Scientists at UCLA used a geochemistry technique on fossilized teeth, including two from "Thomas," a famous T. rex at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, to pin down the dinosaur's body temperature at about 97 degrees Fahrenheit. Crocodilian teeth analyzed the same way came out colder, supporting the case that T. rex was warm-blooded. Commenters debate Fahrenheit versus Celsius and whether even larger dinosaurs ran hotter.
Common sense suggests that living creatures are likely not boiling when they have a mild fever.
- code_biologist
Repost from a different thread: Related only topically, a 1hr YouTube talk I enjoyed a lot: "Hatchling T. rex and the Evolution of Vertebrate Parental Care" by Nick Longrich: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd0dR2n9hLA
He's a paleontologist and the talk starts with some pretty interesting statistical analysis aiming to estimate T rex clutch sizes (66 eggs) and hatchling weights (1.5kg) as well as T rex parental care. It ends with looking at evolutionary history trends in increasing parental investment in radically different animals.
He talks a little slow, so a little playback speed bump won't go amiss.
- laweijfmvo
How do we know its body temperature was 97 degrees, and simply not the environment was 97 degrees?
- ChrisMarshallNY
Wouldn't be surprised if the smaller raptors had even higher body temps.
- SP3269
I’m missing Marc Bolan.
- strongwaddle
'Hotter than a crocodile,
cooler than a chickennnnn....'
is the opening line to a great song i'll never get to hear.
- micromacrofoot
> Up until the early 2000s, dinosaurs were thought to be rather reptilian and therefore probably coldblooded, Dr. Wiemann said. That began to change as multiple lines of evidence from geochemistry studies and CT scans of fossils showed they were warm-blooded. Dr. Wiemann had previously found that T. rex had a fast metabolism, but she said the new study did an “exquisite” job of zeroing in on a precise body temperature.
> To take the body temperature of a long extinct, school-bus-size predator, scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, used a clever geochemistry technique on fossilized teeth, including two from “Thomas,” a famous T. rex in the collection of the National History Museum of Los Angeles County.
fascinating
we've also learned more about the air at the time via teeth, https://nautil.us/the-data-in-a-dinos-smile-1229729
- ohyoutravel
This is really interesting, worth a read. Wouldn’t be surprised if the even larger dinosaurs had even higher body temps!
- modzu
id assumed as much since seeing jurassic park in 1996