By: Nathan Myers
Has anybody discovered any other use for a rat’s tail? I wonder the same thing about sauropod tails. And necks.
View ArticleBy: Ed Yong
Not sure sauropod tails/necks fit the bill (arf arf). They’re certainly big, probably well-suffused with blood vessels, but they’re hardly uninsulated. That’s one of the criteria that Tattersall cites...
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By: Arikia
I’m sure this creature is a rarity in the US but… WANT!!!!!!!!! Hi Ed Your blog is amazing as always!
View ArticleBy: Blackbird
The experiments explain what the beak is useful for *now* but not what it evolved for. Other tropical birds seem to thermoregulate just fine without gigantic colourful beaks. I wouldn’t discard sexual...
View ArticleBy: Ed Yong
Yes quite. You’ll note that neither I nor the researchers are saying that the point of the bill is in heat-radiation *in exclusion of* other hypotheses.
View ArticleBy: Nathan Myers
Ed: Sauropods’ necks and tails were insulated?! Are you announcing membership in the All Dinosaurs Were Swathed in Feathers club? ‘Cause last I heard all of the known sauropod skin impressions had them...
View ArticleBy: Ed Yong
Fat is an insulator too. Note that the blood vessels in the toucan’s bill or the elephant’s ear have very little separating them from the outside world besides a thin layer of keratin/skin respectively.
View ArticleBy: Nathan Myers
Sauropods with blubbery necks? No, sir, I’m not buying. As shot-through with air pockets as their neck bones were (up to 89%), every ounce counted. Sauropods would have had greater need for cooling...
View ArticleBy: toucan
Amazing adaptation. To imagine that the bird slowly evolved its strange bill through natural selection is really a little awe-inspiring.
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