Being already adapted to polar climes could have enabled dinosaurs to survive cold winters in the end-Triassic extinction event when most other animals died out
, when temperatures plunged and decade-long eruptions clouded the air with sulphur. But medium-large dinosaurs rapidly appeared again almost everywhere after this extinction event, says Olsen, and the adaptation of the polar dinosaurs to the cold probably explains why.
When temperatures plummeted during the end-Triassic period, these dinosaurs were prepared for it, having survived feeding on polar vegetation and braving the cold with feathers that served as insulation, says Olsen. These dinosaurs then expanded across the world throughout the Jurassic, taking the place of large non-insulated reptiles, which had been wiped out.
The evidence is the latest to suggest that our concept of dinosaurs needs a rethink, says Olsen. “What our paper shows is that our view of the dinosaurian world is basically all wrong,” he says. “Polar dinosaurs are not on the margin. They are typical. And, in fact, dinosaurs are fundamentally cold-adapted animals.”
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