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