BSC-1005 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Theropoda, Melanosome, Microstructure

• School: FSU
• Department: Biological Science
• Course: BSC-1005
• Professor: G.Bates, G.Erickson, S.Lenhert, C.Schultz, H.Tang, C.Schultz

Document Summary

Dinosaurs were not just like living reptiles but they were not exactly like birds and mammals either. Upright posture similar to birds and mammals suggest great mobility. From their trackways and some species with tail stiffening, we see they did not typically drag their tails like reptiles do. Don"t know for sure what the metabolism of a dinosaur looked like. Reptiles are cold-blooded and require sun to warm them up to be fully active. The bone histology (= microstructure) of dinosaurs is not a perfect match to that of birds and mammals. It shows a mix of both reptilian (growth lines) and mammalian attributes. The highly vascularized nature of their bones suggests these animals grew extremely fast like birds for part of the year, but such growth cam to a complete halt for part of the year, as in living reptiles. Grew faster than reptiles, more along the speed of slower-growing mammals/birds.