29 sept 2011
New analysis suggests they didn't but instead managed to plod on through frigid Antarctic winters.
THE GIST
- Bone analysis from dinosaurs that once lived in the Antarctic Circle suggests the animals did not hibernate.
- The finding opens the door to new studies to determine how dinosaurs may have survived the extreme cold.
That old theory has been put on ice.
Montana State University graduate student Holly Woodward found that the physiology of dinosaurs living in Australia over 160 million years ago was practically the same as dinosaurs living everywhere else on Earth. During this period, Australia was located in the Antarctic Circle, meaning the dinosaurs that populated the region lived in complete darkness and extreme cold for up to six months at a time.
Now Woodward has opened the door to find out how these dinosaurs made it through the extreme cold.
