Modeling Dragons: Using linked mechanistic physiological and microclimate models to explore environmental, physiological, and morphological constraints on the early evolution of dinosaurs.

ABSTRACT: We employed the widely-tested biophysiological modeling software, Niche Mapper™ to investigate the metabolic function of the Late Triassic dinosaurs Plateosaurus and Coelophysis during global greenhouse conditions. We tested a variety of assumptions about resting metabolic rate, each evaluated within six microclimate models that bound paleoenvironmental conditions at 12° N paleolatitude, as determined by sedimentological and isotopic proxies for climate within the Chinle Formation of the southwestern United States. Sensitivity testing of metabolic variables and simulated "metabolic chamber" analyses support elevated "ratite-like" metabolic rates and intermediate "monotreme-like" core temperature ranges in these species of early saurischian dinosaur. Our results suggest small theropods may

SUBMITTER: Lovelace DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7259893 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature