Dinosaur Body Temperatures Determined from Isotopic (13C-18O) Ordering in Fossil Biominerals

@article{Eagle2011DinosaurBT,
  title={Dinosaur Body Temperatures Determined from Isotopic (13C-18O) Ordering in Fossil Biominerals},
  author={Robert A. Eagle and Thomas T{\"u}tken and Taylor S. Martin and A. Tripati and Henry C. Fricke and Melissa V. Connely and Richard. Cifelli and John Eiler},
  journal={Science},
  year={2011},
  volume={333},
  pages={443 - 445}
}
Large dinosaurs had body temperatures similar to those of modern mammals and birds. The nature of the physiology and thermal regulation of the nonavian dinosaurs is the subject of debate. Previously, arguments have been made for both endothermic and ectothermic metabolisms on the basis of differing methodologies. We used clumped isotope thermometry to determine body temperatures from the fossilized teeth of large Jurassic sauropods. Our data indicate body temperatures of 36° to 38°C, which are… 
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121 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
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Background Citations
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Methods Citations
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Results Citations
3

121 Citations

Variable thermoregulation of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs inferred by clumped isotope analysis of fossilized eggshell carbonates
Isotopic ordering in eggshells reflects body temperatures and suggests differing thermophysiology in two Cretaceous dinosaurs.
TLDR
Clumped isotope analysis of eggshells can be used to determine body temperatures of females during periods of ovulation and indicates that variable thermoregulation likely existed among the non-avian dinosaurs and that not all dinosaurs had body temperatures in the range of that seen in modern birds.
Eggshell geochemistry reveals ancestral metabolic thermoregulation in Dinosauria
TLDR
Applying this method to well-preserved fossil eggshells demonstrates that the three major clades of dinosaurs, Ornithischia, Sauropodomorpha, and Theropoda, were characterized by warm body temperatures, and that metabolically controlled thermoregulation was the ancestral condition for Dinosauria.
Paleoclimate Implications from Stable Isotope Analysis of Sedimentary Organic Carbon and Vertebrate Fossils from the Cedar Mountain Formation, UT, U.S.A.
Oxygen and carbon isotopic compositions of fossilized vertebrate teeth and bone were analyzed to determine isotopic values of vertebrate faunal diet from the early Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation…
A paired apatite and calcite clumped isotope thermometry approach to estimating Cambro-Ordovician seawater temperatures and isotopic composition
Assessment of the clumped isotope composition of fossil bone carbonate as a recorder of subsurface temperatures
Life and reproduction of titanosaurians: Isotopic hallmark of mid-palaeolatitude eggshells and its significance for body temperature, diet, and nesting
The evolution of mammalian body temperature: the Cenozoic supraendothermic pulses
  • B. Lovegrove
  • Biology, Geography
    Journal of Comparative Physiology B
  • 2011
TLDR
It is anticipated that the method of estimating body temperature from the abundance of 13C–18O bonds in the carbonate component of tooth bioapatite in both extant and extinct animals may be a very promising tool for estimating the Tb of extinct mammals.
The influence of temperature and seawater carbonate saturation state on 13C–18O bond ordering in bivalve mollusks
The shells of marine mollusks are widely used archives of past climate and ocean chemistry. Whilst the measurement of mollusk δ18O to develop records of past climate change is a commonly used…
Do paleontologists dream of electric dinosaurs? Investigating the presumed inefficiency of dinosaurs contact incubating partially buried eggs
TLDR
Results from this experiment provide evidence for a possible evolutionary path from guarding behavior to thermoregulatory contact incubation in Troodon formosus, and show that contact incubating partially buried eggs did seem to confer an energetic advantage.
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