RE: Dinosaur heart found?

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Jeff Hecht
>
> The Science embargo expired 2 p.m. today (Thursday); it's in the 21
> April issue.

If you have access to the online version of Science (via a university or
research library, for example), the paper in question is at this site:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/288/5465/503

and the abstract (which I think everyone has access to?) is at
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/288/5465/503

and the news report at:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/288/5465/416b

I do concur with the point already made by several people: although the
heart (if that's what this concretion is) morphology is CONSISTENT with a
high level of activity, this does not necessarily imply full avian-style
endothermy.

What I would now like to see is a preserved heart of sphenosuchians and
other non-crocodilian members of the Pseudosuchia, to find out if the unique
modern croc condition represents a basal archosaur form, or (as I suspect,
for scenario-based rather than hard evidence-based reasons) is a derived
feature within the croc lineage alone.

Coolness.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-314-7843


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