Scientists have discovered that the average temperature of tyrannosaurs was about 36.3 degrees Celsius.
For the first time, scientists have been able to measure the body temperature of tyrannosaurs by analyzing the isotopic composition of their tooth enamel, confirming that they were warm-blooded and revealing that their body temperature was close to the average for humans, reaching 36.3 degrees Celsius. This was reported in a study published in the journal Science Advances.
The study stated: "Although there is much evidence that tyrannosaurs were warm-blooded, we have not yet had rough estimates of their body temperature. We obtained the first such estimates by measuring the ratios of two heavy isotopes in the tooth enamel of tyrannosaurs that lived in what is now North America at the end of the Cretaceous period."
The study's author, Robert Eagle, an associate professor at UCLA, noted: "In the past, scientists have tried to calculate the body temperature of tyrannosaurs by measuring the ratios of certain heavy isotopes in their bones and tooth enamel. In all these cases, it was not possible to accurately determine the temperature because there was no information about the amount of water in the bodies of these ancient reptiles."
Scientists solved this problem by noting that the ratio of the "heavy" oxygen-18 and carbon-13 isotopes in tooth enamel grains is independent of the body's water content. Based on this idea, they studied three teeth from Tyrannosaurus rex found in Montana, as well as five Mesozoic crocodiles that lived in the same region.
Measurements taken by scientists confirmed that tyrannosaurs were warm-blooded, as their body temperature was much higher than the surrounding environment, averaging about 36.3 degrees Celsius, which is close to the body temperature of elephants, humans and other modern mammals, and much higher than similar indicators in medieval crocodiles, which reached about 30 degrees Celsius.
Scientists' calculations showed that this degree of body temperature helped tyrannosaurs adapt to various climatic conditions, from cold regions at high latitudes to hot tropical regions, which will help paleoecologists understand how they and their relatives spread across North America and Eurasia by the end of the age of dinosaurs.
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