Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Matters Arising
  • Published:

Amniote metabolism and the evolution of endothermy

Nature volume 621, pages E1–E3 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Matters Arising to this article was published on 06 September 2023

The Original Article was published on 25 May 2022

arising from J. Wiemann et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04770-6 (2022).

Wiemann et al.1 analysed biomarkers that were likely to have resulted from metabolic activities incorporated in the bones of extant and extinct amniotes. They concluded that many non-avian dinosaurs were true endotherms, and that endothermy can be traced back to the common ancestor of dinosaurs and pterosaurs (clade Ornithodira). We praise the efforts to develop new biomarkers to answer questions about metabolism, and we agree that the use of these advanced lipoxidation end-products (ALEs) as biomarkers has the potential to provide valuable information on the metabolic activity of extinct animals. However, we argue that the inference of endothermy based on ALE biomarkers and ancestral state reconstruction is poorly supported by the current evidence.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Statistical uncertainty in the calculated metabolic rates of ancestral nodes.

Data availability

The data from the original study was forked from GitHub and reanalysed. The revised data analysis can be accessed at https://github.com/DavidGoldLab/2022-Dinosaur_metabolism.

References

  1. Wiemann, J. et al. Fossil biomolecules reveal an avian metabolism in the ancestral dinosaur. Nature 606, 522–526 (2022).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Gillooly, J. F., Brown, J. H., West, G. B., Savage, V. M. & Charnov, E. L. Effects of size and temperature on metabolic rate. Science 293, 2248–2251 (2001).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Legendre, L. J., Guénard, G., Botha-Brink, J. & Cubo, J. Palaeohistological evidence for ancestral high metabolic rate in archosaurs. Syst. Biol. 65, 989–996 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Montes, L. et al. Relationships between bone growth rate, body mass and resting metabolic rate in growing amniotes: a phylogenetic approach. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 92, 63–76 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Willer, P., Stone, G. & Jonston, I. Environmental Physiology of Animals, 2 edn (Blackwell Publishing, 2005).

  6. Clemente, C. J., Withers, P. C. & Thompson, G. G. Metabolic rate and endurance capacity in Australian varanid lizards (Squamata; Varanidae; Varanus). Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 97, 664–676 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Traeholt, C. Effect of masking the parietal eye on the diurnal activity and body temperature of two sympatric species of monitor lizards, Varanus s. salvator and Varanus b. nebulosus. J. Comp. Physiol. 167, 177–184 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Garrick, D. Body surface temperature and length in relation to the thermal biology of lizards. Biosci. Horizons 1, 136–142 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Christian, K. A., & Conley, K. E. Activity and resting metabolism of varanid lizards compared with typical lizards. Aust. J. Zool. 42, 185–193 (1994).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Tattersall, G. J. et al. Seasonal reproductive endothermy in tegu lizards. Sci. Adv. 2, e1500951 (2016).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Nagy, K. A. Field metabolic rate and body size. J. Exp. Biol. 208, 1621–1625 (2005).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Owerkowicz, T., Farmer, C. C., Hicks, J. W. & Brainerd, E. L. Contribution of gular pumping to lung ventilation in monitor lizards. Science 284, 1661–1663 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Oakley, T. H. & Cunningham, C. W. Independent contrasts succeed where ancestor reconstruction fails in a known bacteriophage phylogeny. Evolution 54, 397–405 (2000).

  14. Webster, A. J. & Purvis, A. Testing the accuracy of methods for reconstructing ancestral states of continuous characters. Proc. R. Soc. B 269, 143–149 (2002).

  15. Revell, L. J. & Harmon, L. J. Phylogenetic Comparative Methods in R (Princeton Univ. Press, 2022).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA

    Ryosuke Motani, David A. Gold, Sandra J. Carlson & Geerat J. Vermeij

Authors
  1. Ryosuke Motani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David A. Gold
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sandra J. Carlson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Geerat J. Vermeij
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

R.M. drafted the manuscript in consultation with G.J.V. D.A.G. reanalysed the data, drafted the paragraph concerning the reanalysis and edited the rest of the manuscript. S.J.C. initiated the discussion and edited the manuscript. G.J.V. motivated the writing of the manuscript and edited it. All authors actively engaged in discussions of the subject matter.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Geerat J. Vermeij.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Motani, R., Gold, D.A., Carlson, S.J. et al. Amniote metabolism and the evolution of endothermy. Nature 621, E1–E3 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06411-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06411-y

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing