Re: strange question

[anton.eissens@philips.com]

Bert Dol wrote:
" Last night I was just thinking and wondering about the differences between 
various kinds of animals and their energy needs. Ofcourse I also ended up 
thinking about dinosaurs....I need an answer to the next question:
 - do coldblooded animals need the same amount of sleep/rest as warmblooded 
animals do? Or more? Or less? And why?"
Before we can answer this question we need to know the fundamental differences 
between resting and sleeping. Unfortunatly I do not have the answer to this 
question, ofcourse there are differences between various species of animals but 
at general I think 
when you are sleeping you are only using the vital systems for breathing and 
perhaps subconscience movements of sertain limbs. When you're resting you are 
more active, listening and scanning the area around you. Perhaps sertain areas 
of the braincase can 
tell us more about this, is there any research done on dinosaur brain cases 
which can help us wich this topic?
futhermore it's very interesting in our research on dinosaurs to conclude if 
they where active creatures or not. The general idea (at least I think so) is 
that cold blooded animals rest more than warm-blooded animals. If we look at 
crocodiles they are 
always pictured as animals resting on the banks of the river, loading their 
batteries and then go and hunt (simply said ofcourse). Now the same thing can 
ofcourse be said about warm-blooded animals but because they're methabolism is 
much higher they have 
to eat more food and thus move around more so you should think they need more 
rest.....hmm getting very difficult here.
hope someone could jump in this little debate and perhaps give us a better view 
on how active dinosaurs where and, cold-blooded or warm-blooded let an active 
life.

Anton Eissens
Philips Semiconductors bv
Innovation & Engineering Group (IEG)
phone Philips: 0599-632483
e-mail: anton.eissens@philips.com