These two have more in common than previously thought. JORGE NAVA OLIVARES, JURASSIC FEC
Dinosaurs weren’t necessarily cold blooded creatures, as is often argued, according to new research published today (June 27) in Nature, which disproved a leading bit of evidence for this claim. Specifically, researchers showed that the dark layers in dinosaur bones that represent pauses in bone growth also exist in more than 40 species of ruminant mammals.
Dinosaur bones contain fibromellar tissue which is indicative of fast growth in mammals, and supports the idea that dinosaurs were actually warm-blooded (endothermic) creatures with high metabolisms. But in the 1980s, paleontologists found that the bones also contained dark layers known as lines of arrested growth (LAGs), which are commonly found in the bones of reptiles and amphibians and were thought to be indicative of cold-bloodedness, or ectothermy: because ...
