Ectotherms Research Paper

It is well-known that modern birds, aside from being the living descendants of dinosaurs, are endotherms -meaning they have use metabolic processes to maintain an optimal internal body temperature. Unfortunately, there is an apparent controversy about the origin of endothermy in the evolutionary lineage leading to birds, given that dinosaurs were presumed to be ectothermic or ectotherm-like. In discussions about the physiology of extinct vertebrate species like dinosaurs, one factor that has always been used to distinguish ectotherms from endotherms is bone histology. Ectotherms are known to show signs of annual growth arrest cycles, coinciding with decreases in metabolic rate during less favorable dry/cold seasons, while endotherms were