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Were dinosaurs fast, aggressive hunters like those in the movie "Jurassic World"? Or did they have lower metabolic rates that made them more like today's alligators and crocodiles? For 150 years, scientists have debated the nature of dinosaurs' body temperatures and how they influenced activity levels.
New research indicates that some dinosaurs had the capacity to elevate their body temperatures using heat sources in the environment, such as the sun. Researchers also believe the animals were probably more active than modern-day alligators and crocodiles, which can be energetic, but only for brief spurts. The evidence shows that some dinosaurs had lower body temperatures than modern birds, their only living relatives, and were probably less active.Image credit: Luis Chiappe, LA County Natural History Museum
