The Colorado State Open Thread is a place to come and share thoughts, opinions, news and questions about one of the greatest states in the Union. Please let us know what’s on your mind in the comments section below and hopefully some time you’ll be able to come up and visit our Bar and Grill in the mountains.
Before we get to the meat of the diary, I’d like to recommend to you an opinion piece in the Sentinel Journal online paper — sentinelcolorado.com/…. It’s all about the disasters that are being self-inflicted in Douglas County in Colorado. It goes nicely with the recommended story by fellow Coloradan rflctammt — www.dailykos.com/...
Now, on to the bloody heart of the matter — there has been considerable discussion and debate about whether dinosaurs had warm blood (iow, the ability to regulate their own body temperatures through the generation of heat by metabolism in sufficient quantities that their bodies could withstand temperature swings and still maintain activity) or if, since they appear to be related to reptiles they are like modern reptiles in that they are “cold-blooded” and they depend upon their environment to provide them with enough heat to keep them alive and able to move. Since birds are considered descendants from dinosaurs and reptiles are also believed to be relations, there are also people who want to say that they’re a combination of both, which may or may not be actually physically possible. However, we do know some fish, like tuna, do have characteristics of both warm- and cold-blooded circulatory systems.
I’m not going to pretend that I remember enough about my high school and college biology to be able to properly argue one position over the other, but that was also some forty years ago and I’d like to think the field of biology has progressed somewhat in all that time. Since there have been arguments over whether dinosaurs did or did not have warm blood, I would believe that yes, it has advanced somewhat. Which must mean science is wrong and it can never be trusted.
In any case, I wanted to show you that I have some photographic proof that at least one dinosaur species does, indeed, have very cold blood and is not dependent upon sunshine to keep it warm and moving in the frigid temperatures like we have had. I took these photos on Friday in the early afternoon.
I looked closer and nearly dropped my new camera. I got out my cell phone, ready to flee to the basement or someplace, anyplace where I might find shelter from those horribly sharp, rending teeth.
If there is anyone who is a paleontologist, herpetologist or other biological expert, I hope you can lend some scientific knowledge to this photographic evidence. Otherwise, I plan to submit these (and a few other photos) to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science where they have some displays on dinosaurs to get their opinions. In the meantime, I am looking very carefully around me for any signs of beasts like this — I thought they would be in torpor at this time of the year, but apparently, they’re out and they’re hungry. At least I will, if I survive.
I hope I’m around to see your responses below. If not, please save yourselves first, save America next and save the planet third, so beasts like this can inherit it when humanity may finally end ourselves. Peace be with you. The floor is yours...