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Oxygen isotope variability in juvenile dinosaurs (Hypacrosaurus): evidence for thermoregulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Reese E. Barrick and
William J. Showers
Reese E. Barrick
Affiliation:
Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695
William J. Showers
Affiliation:
Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695
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Abstract

Small terrestrial vertebrates are not capable of maintaining a constant body temperature (±2°C) without a relatively high metabolism. The amount of temperature variability during bone growth can be determined using oxygen isotopes from bone phosphate because fractionation of oxygen isotopes between body fluid and bone phosphate is dependent upon temperature. Fluctuation of body temperature during the early phase of growth in juvenile ectotherms should result in high intra- and interbone isotopic variability, whereas juvenile endotherms should have low isotopic variability resulting from the maintenance of homeothermy. Analyses of juvenile Hypacrosaurus individuals indicate a pattern of low isotopic heterogeneity suggestive of endothermy.

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Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , Fall 1995, pp. 552 - 560
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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