Dinosaurs

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dinosaurs were large,
weighing more than 1,100 lb., and few weighed less than 100 lb. Most were
herbivores, but some saurischians were carnivorous. The majority were four-
footed but some ornithischians and all carnivores walked on their hind legs.

Always classified as reptiles, dinosaurs have traditionally been assumed
to have been reptilian in their physiology, cold-blooded, and ectothermic. In
recent years several different lines of evidence have been interpreted as
indicating that dinosaurs may have had warm blood and high rates of metabolism,
comparable to birds and mammals. Evidence supporting this view includes upright
posture and carriage; mammallike microscopical structure of bones; skeletal
features suggestive of high activity; and specialized food-processing dentitions
and low ratios of dinosaurian predators to prey animals, both suggesting high
food requirements. The evidence is not conclusive--all the facts can be
alternatively explained--but some dinosaurs may ...

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