How To Take A Dinosaur's Temperature

Despite the seemingly basic things we don't know about dinosaurs, we do know some surprising things – like their body temperatures.

LEARN MORE
**************
To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
- Clumped Isotopes: heavy isotopes that are bonded to other heavy isotopes.
- Ectotherm: any animal whose regulation of body temperature depends on external sources.
- Endotherm: an animal that is dependent on or capable of the internal generation of heat.
- Isotope: each of two or more forms of the same element that contain equal numbers of protons but different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei, and hence differ in relative atomic mass but not in chemical properties; in particular.
- Mesotherm: a type of animal with a thermoregulatory strategy intermediate to cold-blooded ectotherms and warm-blooded endotherms.
- Metabolism: the chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life.

SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH
**************************
If you like what we do, you can help us!:
- Share this video with your friends and family
- Leave us a comment (we read them!)

CREDITS
*********
Cameron Duke | Script Writer, Narrator and Director
Arcadi Garcia i Ruis | Storyboard Artist
Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation
Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC

OUR STAFF
************
Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke
Arcadi Garcia i Rius • David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes
Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich
Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida

OUR LINKS
************

REFERENCES
**************

[babilon]

My 1yo son is afraid of thermometers and I can't get him to sit still enough to take measurements. I'm glad there is a new method that doesn't require his cooperation.

[Absbor]

i love the thumbnail change. from a scale to butt thermometering a t-rex.

[lightyagami]

Imagine sharing the video while it had it's previous thumbnail, and then an hour later seeing it was automatically replaced by this new thumbnail. I'm living for the chaos

[Beegrene]

I'm always impressed by how much information scientists can infer from seemingly insignificant details. Like how astronomers can determine the composition of a galaxy ten billion lightyears away by looking at how it twinkles in the sky.

[AdityaMehendale]

2:13 "Let me say that again.." --> this ought to be done by science-channels more often :)

[iainballas]

This was the single best thumbnail in the history of thumbnails.

[MrRusty]

Alright, I saw the video with a couple different thumbnails, was going to get around to it eventually anyways. But I need it known, whoever came up with the thermometer going up the ass of a T-rex is a fucking genius. To the point were they should probably just be put in charge of any and all decision making on the channel. No offense to anyone else, but god DAMN that thing is a masterpiece.

[fakjbf]

0:30 I will not stand for this avian slander! Birds are dinosaurs, right in the middle of the theropods and they evolved millions of years before the end of the cretaceous.

[pettheturtle]

0:52 I always love the pokemon reference in MinuteEarth videos

[Rusheman]

One of the best thumbnails I have ever seen

[zoekassoff]

Ayo the thumb nail is.... very accurate to how ypu would take temperature.

[King_Eik]

How does one even measure the amount of bonds between specific isotopes?
If I had to guess: You could destroy the bonds in the bone by some reaction and measure how much energy it took to destroy the bone (dissolving, burning, something like that) but I doubt that is the method because you wouldn't want to destroy these rare bones...?

Edit: I looked it up so you don't have to:
The bones are actually destroyed! You dissolve them in acid (anhydrous phosphoric acid) which releases the CO2.
This gas is purified by gas chromatography and then you can do mass spectroscopy of the CO2.

This does require relatively large samples and takes quite long to do, but there does not seem to be an alternative as of now ^^

[Meandbroafter]

Not the titorial we wanted,
But the tutorial we needed

[SonnyDarvish]

With this thumbnail, you're gonna get to 3M subscribers tonight! 🎯

[Clock_Man_]

Carbon and Oxygen is basically
Daniel: C^12 and O^16
Cooler Daniel: C^13 and O^18

[smurfyday]

So an egg can fluctuate in temperature, but how do we know that applies to the adults too?

[hanswoast]

Pedantry corner: scientist did NOT measure the temperature, but they deduced it using the direct measurement of the isotope ratio and some very reasonable assumptions. That sounds like a detail, but it is a very important distinction in terms of certainty. The deduced temperature values might still be wrong if either the assumptions fail or the isotope measurement is erroneous.

[AttenuatedNecronym]

The thumbnail is probably an accidental double entendre. Maybe it should say "warm!"

[FransM]

Alright, you got me with that thumbnail.

[anuragguptamr.i.i.t.]

Loved the way, you have included a pokemon in this video... 😍