Melbourne: Dinosaurs were warm-blooded like birds and mammals, not cold-blooded like reptiles as commonly believed, a new study has found.
University of Adelaide researchers found that cold-blooded dinosaurs would not have had the required muscular power to prey on other animals and dominate over mammals as they did throughout the Mesozoic period, an interval of geological time from about 252 to 66 million years ago. “Much can be learned about dinosaurs from fossils but the question of whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded or cold-blooded is still hotly debated among scientists,” said Professor Roger Seymour of the University’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.