Ectothermy vs. Endothermy :
From the above mentioned facts, it becomes clear that when one set of evidence helps us understand that dinosaurs were cold blooded, simultaneous set of another contradictory evidence suggests that they were warm blooded. Of late, a few scientists and scholars have voiced their belief in that dinosaurs were warm blooded, since they now consider dinosaurs to have been highly evolved and active animals, unlike what was thought earlier of them as slow and sluggish. Categorically they treated Endothermy as a “more evolved” trait and easily hypothesized that dinosaurs therefore were endotherms. But, here lies my objection and this is where I beg to differ from them.
I do not believe in the fact that endothermy is a more…show more content… Before answering the above question, I would like to emphasize on the following two facts:
First, that we cannot study dinosaurs by describing one single species or type, that will represent the entire group. They exhibited great diversity in their size, types, food habits, style of locomotion etc.
Dinosaurs can be broadly categorized into 4 groups:
1) Sauropods: these were massive, barrel shaped plant eaters. They walked on four pillar like legs and had long necks.
2) Theropods: these were meat eaters with sharp slicing teeth. They walked on their hind two legs, and used forearms to grasp prey.
3) Ornithopods: These were huge plant eaters with sharp slicing teeth.
4) Stegosaurs: Plant eating dinosaurs of Jurassic, they used large bony plates to dissipate heat.
Second, we need to consider the fact that dinosaurs had existed for millions of years, during which they witnessed great changes in the world. And to survive in a changing environment, they had to adapt themselves and therefore dinosaurs had a long story of adaptation over the time span of 150 million…show more content… But soon among the dinosaurs a great diversification took place. Some fed only on plants and were herbivores, the others fed only on smaller prey animals and became complete carnivores. The herbivores, like the Sauropods and Stegosaurus remained slow and sluggish and did not undergo any adaptation or evolution to get transformed into agile endothermic animals because the plentiful vegetation and warm climate of the time period then, provided them with all the necessary resources required for their survival at the optimal best. However, the carnivores, especially the Theropods, required speed and more agility to chase and hunt their prey down. They needed to spring into action right away for which they needed to keep their muscles warm. And in order to achieve swift running and speed, they required a high metabolic rate which ultimately required them to be endothermic. Hence, the carnivorous dinosaurs which were primarily ectothermic, slowly evolved into endothermic ones, as a “need” for the same arose and adopted for their