Metabolic Clues—Are Scientists Getting Warmer?

Paleontologists have long questioned whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded like modern mammals and birds or cold-blooded like modern reptiles. If an animal has a high metabolic rate, it’s warm-blooded; if it has a low metabolic rate, it’s cold-blooded.

A team of scientists recently published a paper revealing a new method that examines dinosaurs’ metabolic rates by studying oxygen use and its by-products—molecular “waste” preserved by fossilization that leaves behind evidence of how much oxygen the dinosaur inhaled and its metabolic rate.

When they discovered that the dinosaurs had a generally high metabolism, the team concluded that the creatures were warm-blooded. But they went further to claim that some of the dinosaurs had metabolic rates “comparable to modern birds.”

While interesting, this study is based on evolutionary assumption. Most evolutionists believe dinosaurs evolved into birds and interpret evidence based on their worldview. The potential discovery of warm-blooded dinosaurs doesn’t change anything for biblical creationists. We know that dinosaurs didn’t evolve into birds because God’s Word makes it clear—dinosaurs and birds were created as separate and distinct kinds on two separate days of creation week.

This article is from Answers magazine, October–December, 2022, p. 19.