Faculty of Sciences
e-Science Teachers Pack
Issue 16, February 2016
In hot blood: Dinosaurs were more like birds than lizards
Summary & learning outcomes
Dinosaurs have traditionally been depicted as being cold blooded reptiles. New evidence keeps
emerging that they were likely warm blooded and more closely related to birds. The evidence used
comes from analysing fossils. Some of this fossil analysis involves calculating the blood pressures
needed for a dinosaur to live and comparing it to other, living animals. In this pack, students will
learn about the evidence for dinosaurs being warm blooded creatures, how this may have affected
their behaviour and the broader evolutionary family of dinosaurs.
Learning outcomes:
> There has been much debate over the years about whether dinosaurs were cold blooded or
warm blooded.
> Evidence from the fossil remains of dinosaurs indicates that they were warm blooded like birds,
rather than cold blooded like reptiles.
> Dinosaurs were part of the archosaur group of animals, descendants of which include birds and
crocodilians.
Prior learning
Students will be familiar with dinosaurs and the idea of analysing fossils for evidence about them.
Establish how much they know about warm and cold bloodedness and gauge what they think about
dinosaurs’ blood temperature. Some of the older students may be familiar with the evolutionary
descendants of dinosaurs; establish how much the students know about dinosaurs relationships to
birds and crocodilians.
> Brainstorm what students already know about dinosaurs and what their bodies were like. How big
were they? What did they eat? How do we know what we know about them? Were dinosaurs
warm blooded or cold blooded?
Curriculum
View the relevance of this article and its resources to the Australian Curriculum:
www.sciences.adelaide.edu.au/schools-resources/docs/curriculum-issue16-in-hot-blood.pdf
Lesson plan & learning activities
Lesson 1 – Introduction to dinosaur physiology
> Brainstorm what students already know about dinosaurs and what their bodies were like. How big
were they? What did they eat? How do we know what we know about them? Were dinosaurs
warm blooded or cold blooded? Find out what the students know about the descendants of
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dinosaurs. What kind of animal was a dinosaur? What other kinds of animals are related to
dinosaurs? Are these types of animals still alive today?
Introduce dinosaur physiology through reading “In hot blood: Dinosaurs were more like birds than
lizards” (Issue 16, February 2016) article as a class (organise students into pairs or small groups
to share resources).
Images within the article can be utilised (printed out or used on an interactive whiteboard) to
reinforce points of importance.
Discuss with the students (as a class) what they learned from the article. Find out:
o Were there things that they already knew about dinosaurs but reluctant to mention
during brainstorming?
o What things didn’t they know? Did they learn anything interesting?
o Are there things they want to find out more about from the article?
Define any unknown words and use them to create glossary of keywords.
View video (see resources list below) if there is time (otherwise show at start of 2nd lesson).
Lesson 2 – Animal blood temperatures
> Show video if you didn’t have time in the first lesson.
> Quick review of points from e-Science article.
> Choose two animals: one that is endothermic (warm blooded) and one that is ectothermic (cold
blooded). For each one, use library and online resources to find out:
o How much and how often they need to eat
o Their habitat
o The weather conditions they’re found in
o Their speed and how active they are
o For endotherms, what techniques they have to keep their internal temperature constant
o For ectotherms, what ways they have of warming their body
> Once you have collated all of your information, present it in a table comparing the characteristics
of the two animals. Have a look at your classmates’ tables – are there any patterns or trends
which form in each kind of animal?
Resources
Videos (can be shown through a PC or interactive whiteboard)
> Animals can gain advantages and disadvantages from regulating their temperatures in different
ways. This video explores the effects that endothermy and ectothermy have on various species.
https://youtu.be/LH1p1XOqfsg
> Dinosaurs were part of a larger group of animals known as archosaurs, another branch of which
was known as the crocodilians, which eventually led to modern day crocodiles.
https://youtu.be/BC4WtATYPnQ
> The blood temperature of dinosaurs is just one aspect of our knowledge that has changed over
time. This video shows how several aspects of dinosaurs have been revised as more evidence
has presented itself over the years.
https://youtu.be/-jAn8cprt3c
Useful Websites
> The Infrared Zoo has a number of useful and striking images which demonstrate the difference
between warm blooded and cold blooded animals.
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/ir_zoo/coldwarm.html
> Roger’s research on the holes left in fossils from blood vessels has also been used to look at
aspects of mammal evolution. You can read more about this in Issue 15 of e-Science.
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http://escience.realviewdigital.com/?iid=129651#folio=18
> Archosaurs were an important evolutionary group whose modern members are still with us today.
These two pages give a good overview if the different evolutionary paths the group took.
http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/communication/boulton/archosaur.html
https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/what-are-archosaurs/
> As detailed in the article, part of the problem with determining what kind of blood temperature
regulation dinosaurs has is that there has been conflicting second hand evidence. An example of
this is presented in the science news article below.
http://www.livescience.com/51162-dinosaurs-warm-blooded-growth-rates.html
Materials
> “In hot blood: Dinosaurs were more like birds than crocodiles” (e-Science Issue 16, February
2016). This can be supplied on iPad or printed out from the web edition here:
www.sciences.adelaide.edu.au/schools-resources/e-science/
> Hotter or colder research activity:
www.sciences.adelaide.edu.au/schools-resources/docs/research-hotter-or-colder.pdf
Assessment
Teachers should choose assessment rubrics relevant to the year level and topic that they are
teaching.
Summative assessment:
> Tables from Hotter or colder research activity
Formative assessment:
> Contributions to discussions
> Glossary of words
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