Terramegathermy in the Time of the Titans: Restoring the Metabolics of Colossal Dinosaurs

Abstract

Among dinosaurs, megadinosaurs (those over one tonne) have been considered among the best candidates for having had low metabolic rates (LoMRs). Spotila et al (1991) argued that big dinosaurs were gigantotherms that shared thermal characteristics with the large leatherback sea turtle, and Dodson (1991) suggested that giant dinosaurs lived in the slow lane compared to giant mammals. Coulson (1979), Bennett (1991) and Ruben (1991) restored big dinosaurs as “good reptiles” powered by bursts of reptilian hyperanaerobiosis rather than the sustained tachyaerobiosis that powers birds and mammals. Farlow (1990) suggested that large dinosaurs were “damned good reptiles” with fluctuating metabolic rates (MRs), and in 1993 he argued that dinosaurs used a combination of rapid reproduction and intermediate metabolic rates (InMRs) to grow bigger than land mammals. All the above workers, and McNab (1983) and Dunham et al. (1989), have modeled big dinosaurs as LoMR or InMR inertial homeotherms that maintained constant body temperatures on a daily basis.