Taking dinosaurs’ temperature with a new biomarker

Allosaurus bone extracellular matrix: Microscopic view of bone soft tissues of one of the dinosaur specimens (Allosaurus) that were investigated for metabolic signals (metabolic crosslinks) in the fossilization products of the proteinaceous bone matrix. Fossilization introduces additional crosslinks that, in combination with metabolic crosslinks, generate the characteristic brown color of the fossil extracellular matrix which holds bone cells and blood vessels in place. The extracellular matrix also holds the crystalline, white bone mineral, apatite, in place. J. Wiemann) A Yale-led research team has turned up the heat on dinosaur metabolism - establishing that the earliest dinosaurs and pterosaurs had exceptionally high metabolic rates and were warm-blooded animals. The findings, published May 25 , also show that dinosaurs' metabolism did not decide their fate after an asteroid strike wiped out most animal species on the planet 65 million years ago. " While modern ecologists tend to emphasize the importance of metabolic rate to ensure that animals survive environmental perturbations, we showed that metabolism is not the reason why birds were the only group of dinosaurs to survive the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period," said lead author Jasmina Wiemann, a former Yale paleontologist who is now at CalTech. "Many dinosaurs with metabolisms as efficient as those in modern birds went extinct." For the study, the researchers identified a new, molecular marker for metabolic stress that can be found in skeletal material in both modern animals and long-extinct species.