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Re: Hibernating Dinosaurs?

Most animals that can survive lower that nominal metabolic temperatures would use less energy during a rapidly cooling climatic event. This creature feature has its good points and bad points for survival. It is hard for a hypothermically metabolically slowed down creature to avoid a warm blooded mammalian predator for instance. Granted that hibernating critters use less energy to survive those lean times. Hibernation could be one mechanism that situationally might increase the chances of surviving a catastrophic environmental change. That is, assuming that there was light at the end of the hibernation tunnel and a better day to wake up to. No matter what role the trait played, it was certainly not the only mechanism that enabled trans-K/T event survival certainly. It is highly probable that all organisms that survived the K/T extinction did not rely on sleeping though it to survive. Survival past the extinction event was a multi-strategy opportunistic situation. What ever worked, did. Survival of the fittest..............
Frank Bliss
MS Biostratigraphy
Weston, Wyoming


On Mar 17, 2005, at 8:50 AM, Simon M. Clabby wrote:

Do all bird hibernate? Does that also mean that
turtles, snakes and crocodiles hibernate as well,
whereas all the mammal groups that didn't make it
through the KT boundary didn't?

Incidentally, there was a programme on Channel 4 in
the UK a week or so ago called "The Last Dragon",
which was an interesting attempt to show the
"evolution" of dragons, starting in the Cretaceous.
Apparently Dragons would have made it through as they
were aquatic, just like all the other groups that made
it through, such as the Mosasaurs...

Sorry about the last bit, totally irrelevant I know,
but someone mentioned KT and spurious survival
mechanisms, so I included it.

Simon

--- John Bois <jbois@umd5.umd.edu> wrote: 
Hibernation is one of the main proposed mechanisms
for mammal survival at
the K/T.  So, obviously, since no non-avian
dinosaurs survived, none could
have hibernated!  Except for those important
hibernators, birds, of
course.

On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 MariusRomanus@aol.com wrote:

What's the current opinion about the idea of
hibernating dinosaurs from
Australia/Antarctica? The only thing I can find is
mention of a possible
hibernating ornithomimid, but I can't find any
substantial reasons that support the 
claim.

Thank ya much.

Kris



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