A/C Came Standard On Some Armored Dinosaur Models

An anonymous reader writes In a new study, paleontologists revealed that armor–plated Ankylosaurs had an exceptional capability to change the temperature of the air they breathed with the help of their long, winding nasal passages. From the article: "Led by paleontologist Jason Bourke, a team of scientists at Ohio University used CT scans to document the anatomy of nasal passages in two different ankylosaur species. The team then modeled airflow through 3D reconstructions of these tubes. Bourke found that the convoluted passageways would have given the inhaled air more time and more surface area to warm up to body temperature by drawing heat away from nearby blood vessels. As a result, the blood would be cooled, and shunted to the brain to keep its temperature stable."

Comments

Love your nose

[sleep-doc]

We (humans) do the same: the air is conditioned -warmed and humidified- on its way through the nose. Blood flow to the nose is dynamic, changing the degree of expansion of the folds of tissue lining the sides of the nasal passages, which changes surface area for heat and moisture transfer as well as supplying more (usually) warm blood to deliver heat to the airstream. the new issue from this paper may be that it could change body temperature. In people it doesn't typically alter body temperature a lot, but we do on occasion use very warm air (40 centigrade or a bit higher) to try and warm up people with hypothermia. The low heat capacity of air compared to water/fluids limits how effective that can be.

Re:Love your nose

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Rather than typical AC, this sounds more like heat recovery ventilation to me.

Re:Love your nose

[Triklyn]

we got nothing on aquatic animals. they got counter current exchange going.

Re: Love your nose

[Anonymous Coward]

Come on, if you're a sleep doc and you are espousing the wonders of nasal anatomy (to include turbinates), how could you omit a reference to the nasal swell bodies?

They're erectile tissue, ffs.

I call them "nose boners". I'm sure the attendings will love it.

Re:Love your nose

[Anonymous Coward]

So do male humans. While it's not a true rete mirabile, the pampiniform plexus provides countercurrent heat exchange for the testicular blood supply. Gotta keep the balls cooler than body temp or sperm won't grow.

Re:Love your nose

[rogoshen1]

how do we know for sure that these features part of their HOST for explicitly this reason -- it could have acted as a FILTER for pathogens?

That's not how air conditioning works

[Anonymous Coward]

Just sayin'

Re:That's not how air conditioning works

[Anonymous Coward]

This. Unless they were somehow compressing the air into liquid form and then using the expansion to cool down a different area, it's not A/C.

Re:That's not how air conditioning works

[beelsebob]

Yep, this is an intercooler, not AC.

Re:That's not how air conditioning works

[plover]

What, you're saying swamp coolers don't qualify as A/C? They may not use the traditional compression/expansion cycle, but they certainly do cool an area. And a mucosal surface like the nasal cavity would provide plenty of evaporation to further expel heat from the body. (Although I suspect that the dinosaurs in TFA used swamp cooling primarily in its most literal sense of "hey, let's stand in the swamp because it's cooler".)

The study postulates that dinosaurs' nasal cavities acted as heat exchangers. Without a heat exchanger, your traditional A/C wouldn't work, either. I wouldn't quibble with this categorization.

My biggest gripe is the article misused the term "model" when it clearly meant genus or species.

Re:That's not how air conditioning works

[Anonymous Coward]

And if we're being pedantic, then genera and species are squishy terms (c.f. cladistics undermining the standard taxonomical hierarchy), whereas "model" encompasses the concept. I wouldn't quibble with this categorization.

Re:That's not how air conditioning works

[Overzeetop]

No, they're not actually. Traditionally, "air-conditioning" requires a transfer of energy against the normal entropic flow. Evaporative (aka "Swamp") coolers trade latent heat for sensible heat, increasing the humidity of a space in proportion to the energy lost in the air stream.

I would have no problem characterizing the process as a heat exchanger - a somewhat unusual version, even. Calling it A/C is part of the dumbing down of the entire internet.

Second!

[Anonymous Coward]

Second!

The A/C option makes sense

[Anonymous Coward]

After all, it also came with the alligator-skin seats and the stadium seating...

It's not how YOUR air conditioning works...

[jeffb (2.718)]

Refrigeration is only one of numerous ways to do air conditioning. The important thing is modifying the air's properties (temperature and/or humidity) to better suit a target application.

In this case, the dinosaur had a sophisticated heat exchanger, one key component of air conditioning. But the "air conditioning" (warming the air) isn't the function they're emphasizing -- they're emphasizing the "chiller" function, where that air controllably cooled blood circulating to the brain.

Re:It's not how YOUR air conditioning works...

[Overzeetop]

A/C, at least in the US, refers specifically to refrigeration. Otherwise it's called ventilation. Hence HVAC, or Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning. It is a novel heat exchanger, at least in the animal world where turbinates are the norm. Using the proper term in scientific literature matters, otherwise it's just another rock hard abs, bigger boobs, or amazing cat story linked from a social media aggregator.

Re:It's not how YOUR air conditioning works...

[Stoutlimb]

I googled "passive air conditioning" and got about 7,770,000 results. A quick browse of links showed no instances of using the refrigeration cycle. I guess A/C without refrigeration is a thing.

Impractical.

[aardvarkjoe]

The cords would just keep getting tangled up. You're much better off getting the DC model with a big battery pack.

Re:Impractical.

[slashmydots]

It's even easier to just stop at the shaved italian lemon ice stand. Dinosaurs can put those down in seconds.

Better than D/C

[bananaquackmoo]

What type of outlet did they plug into? American? European?

Re:Better than D/C

[damien_kane]

What type of outlet did they plug into? American? European?

African, likely
European outlets wouldn't be able to carry enough weight, unless perhaps you had two of them with a string between them

this does nothing

[slashmydots]

Am I the only one who realizes that this does nothing? Let's say the air outside is 100F and your blood is 98F so you want to cool down. Let me calculate the thermal energy transfer in that case...hmmm yep, that's zero. I guess the dinosaur still overheats.

Re:this does nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

And if the air is cooler than the blood?

Re:this does nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

So what you're saying is that some animals have certain temperature range requirements to live? Interesting hypothesis!

Re:this does nothing

[wonkey_monkey]

Well, I guess you'd better call paleontologist Jason Bourke and his team of scientists at Ohio University and tell them what a bunch of idiots they are.

Let's say the air outside is 100F and your blood is 98F so you want to cool down.

It was really hot yesterday. I put a sweater on. I got even hotter! Therefore sweaters are always useless.

Re:this does nothing

[Bite The Pillow]

Is it more likely that the article, which is a summary, and the summary, which is a summary of a summary, elided over important bits? Or that you are an idiot?

Is it possible that warmer blood was redirected to the brain, and cooler blood elsewhere, yielding, in idiot terms, "nothing", but in pseudo-science terms "preservation of a favored organ"?

Is it possible at all, that an overheated arm is of little concern, but an overheated brain might be a little more important?

I apologise, science is obviously wrong, and you are no idiot. Let's pin a medal on you for being the only person in the entire collection of people who wrote the research results, published a study, peer reviewed it, and read it, to be the only one who realizes that it does nothing.

"The fossil evidence suggests that Stegoceras was basically similar to an ostrich or an alligator," Porter said. "Hot arterial blood from the body was cooled as it passed over the respiratory turbinates, and then that cooled venous blood returned to the brain. It may not have been much of a brain, but you don't want it cooked!"

Nope, your a idiot.

Re:this does nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I the only one who realizes that this does nothing?

Every time you ask this, the answer is always "No, because that isn't fucking true".

Literally. Every. Single. Time.

Because you are a moron.

Climate Change

[inglorion_on_the_net]

No wonder the dinosaurs went extinct! Running the A/C all the time, they caused so much climate change that they wiped themselves out!

Not A/C

[nyet]

If it doesn't feature the Carnot cycle, it isn't actually A/C, IMO.

Re:Not A/C

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah but saying "heat exchangers came standard" would sound less cool.

Obligatory D&D

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait, wouldn't all armored dinosaurs come with an Armor Class?

Built like tanks

[Anonymous Coward]

Those Ankylosaurs were walking armoured cars. How did they ever get a viable CT scan of their nasal passages? Those skeletons must come out of the ground like solid blocks of stone!

This is not that unusual

[Rambo Tribble]

Some mammals have similar systems. As I recall, sheep are an example.