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The physiology of dinosaurs has historically been a controversial subject, particularly their thermoregulation. Recently, many new lines of evidence have been brought to bear on dinosaur physiology generally, including not only metabolic systems and thermoregulation, but on respiratory and cardiovascular systems as well.
During the early years of dinosaur paleontology, it was widely considered that they were sluggish, cumbersome, and sprawling cold-blooded lizards.[dubious – discuss] However, with the discovery of much more complete skeletons in western United States, starting in the 1870s, scientists could make more informed interpretations of dinosaur biology and physiology. Edward Drinker Cope, opponent of Othniel Charles Marsh in the Bone Wars, propounded at least some dinosaurs as active and agile, as seen in the painting of two fighting Laelaps produced under his direction by Charles R. Knight.[1]
In parallel, the development of Darwinian evolution, and the discoveries of Archaeopteryx and Compsognathus, led Thomas Henry Huxley to propose that dinosaurs were closely related to birds.[2] Despite these considerations, the image of dinosaurs as large reptiles had already taken root,[1] and most aspects of their paleobiology were interpreted as being typically reptilian for the first half of the twentieth century.[3] Beginning in the 1960s and with the advent of the Dinosaur Renaissance, views of dinosaurs and their physiology have changed dramatically, including the discovery of feathered dinosaurs in Early Cretaceous age deposits in China, indicating that birds evolved from highly agile maniraptoran dinosaurs.
- ^ a b Lucas, Spencer G. (1999). Dinosaurs: The Textbook (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. pp. 3–9. ISBN 978-0-07-303642-7.
- ^ Fastovsky DE, Weishampel DB (2005). "Theropoda I:Nature red in tooth and claw". In Fastovsky DE, Weishampel DB (eds.). The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 265–299. ISBN 978-0-521-81172-9.
- ^ Colbert, E.H.; Cowles, R.B.; Bogert, C.M. (June 1947). "Temperature Tolerances in the American Alligator and Their Bearing on the Habits, Evolution, and Extinction of the Dinosaurs". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 22 (2): 145–146. doi:10.1086/395712.