THE MANY MYTHS, SOME OLD, SOME NEW, OF ... - Gregory S. Paul
THE MANY MYTHS, SOME OLD, SOME NEW, OF ... - Gregory S. Paul
THE MANY MYTHS, SOME OLD, SOME NEW, OF ... - Gregory S. Paul
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84 G. S. PAUL<br />
Figure 7 The small size of the main body of the cranium of Pterodaustro guinazui (figures based on a<br />
complete skull and skeleton) shows that, despite their high level energetics, insulation, and flight,<br />
pterosaurs had reptilian sized brains.<br />
single modern example has failed to do so. The argument that non-tachyrnetabolic,<br />
fast growing therapsids confirm the viability of this combination depend upon the<br />
questionable assumption that they were not tachymetabolic-there being good<br />
evidence that they were tachymetabolic at the edentate level. The concept of fast<br />
growing reptilian dinosaurs and therapsids is entirely speculative, and will always<br />
remain so in the absence of any living analogues.<br />
MESOZOIC CLIMES WERE WARM AND BENIGN<br />
Myth: The Mesozoic was an age of nonseasonal warmth, where even the poles<br />
supported extensive forests. In terms of modelling dinosaur physiology, this takes<br />
the form of exposing the subjects to relatively benign thermal conditions that appear<br />
to favor warmth loving reptiles (Spotila et al., 1973; Paladino et al., 1990).<br />
Reality: It is true that the Mesozoic climate was more moderate than today's.<br />
However, Barron and Washington (1982) and Sloan and Barron (1990) have stressed<br />
that it was not in fact equable, and that continental interior and polar locales with<br />
resident dinosaur faunas experienced cold winters. This leads to the problem of<br />
downplaying the severe conditions that dinosaurs in such places as the interior of