Functional Morphology and Behaviour Flashcards
How do they re-construct dinosaurs?
Use anatomical knowledge based on the nearest living realtive to reconstruct the skeleton - often use crocs as birds have an unusual skeleton due to flight
Try and flesh up the dinosaurs by either using soft tissue preservation (very rare to come across this) or use the nearest living realtive (harder to decide whether to use crocs or birds for this)
How are dinosaur biomechanics reconstructed?
Can use 3-D computer animation based on complex engineering algorithms
Can also use trackways - this can help us work out the height of the hip, speed and weight
How do they calculate dinosaur intelligence?
Use EQ
This is ratio of brain size to body mass
Have positive correlation of EQ in current terrestrial animals so it is used for dinosaurs
How do they calculate dinosaurs senses
Cast brain using CT scanning
Not very accurate so they cant say much about senses
How do they work out dinosaur diet?
Teeth form
Jaw adaptations
Co-occurences (can re-construct vegetation and then re-construct the food chain)
Coprolites - take apart and see whats inside (but dont know what animal caused them so have to use co-occurences)
Gut contents
Fortuitous finds - found two dinosaurs in a death lock
How can they work out dinosaur behaviour?
Eggs - can show nesting behaviour
Embryos - can look at the bones. If the bones are fully formed they probably hatched and left alone by the parent. If the bones are not fully formed then there must have been some form of parental care
Footprints - can show herd behaviour. But these need to continue for a distance to determine this
Skull shape - certain species have different structures which show head-butting behaviour (only males have them so probably for attracting mates) and other species have males that have skulls for sexual selection
What is the evidence for dinosaur thermoregulatory physiology?
Stance and activity levels - animals with higher activity levels tend to thermoregulate
Adaptations for processing high volumes of food - thermoregulators need more food
Haemodynamics - many dinosaurs had a four-chambered heart which is often seen in thermoregulators
Brain size - an increased brain size means they need to be thermoregulators
Nose morphology
Bone history and growth rates
Predator-prey ratios - need more pret if you are thermoregulating
Palaeogeography - found polar dinosaurs so theory is that these must have had to have been thermoregulators
Core and peripheral temperatures - there are isotopic differences between core and peripheral temperatures in cold-blooded animals but thermoregulators have constant temps
Had to evolve at some point as birds are warm-blooded - or did it evolve with the birds?
What dinosaurs do scientists think were thermoregulators?
Theropods
