3 ms·

Hadn’t heard of that one before. Sure it was cold blooded? Wikipedia claims it was a mammal.

cogman10 2y ago
It is a mammal which is why it's so fascinating! The goat bones have a growth pattern only found in reptiles suggesting it had adapted to varying availability of food. Other morpholigic changes (smaller brain, smaller eyes) also suggest that it had at a minimum evolved to withstand low nutrition periods. The working theory to these observed structures is that this mammal a rare example of a warm blooded creature turning cold blooded. Stranger things have happened though, the evolutionary path of whales is particularly strange.
- nsm 2y ago
  Reminds me of Adrian Tchaikovsky's new book Saturation Point. I don't want to reveal any spoilers, but it is about warm-blooded/cold-blooded and applicability to quicker adaptation.
- ghc 2y ago
  > The working theory to these observed structures is that this mammal a rare example of a warm blooded creature turning cold blooded. I was so excited to read about this, but it turns out further research found that all ruminants possess these structures: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11264 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11264 > Our study supplies the strongest evidence so far that homeothermic endotherms arrest growth seasonally, which precludes the use of lines of arrested growth as an argument in support of ectothermy. The neat thing about this goat is how it now is part of a body of evidence that dinosaurs were endotherms.
  - cogman10 2y ago
    This is also neat. Thanks for sharing :).
sandworm101 2y ago
Warmbloodedness and homeostasis are slightly different things. There are mammals that can radically drop their body temperatures (hibernation) as there are a few fish that can raise them (great white sharks).
- cogman10 2y ago
  What lends credibility to the cold blooded theory is that the island is located just south of Spain. Climate wise it simply never gets super cold there. But certainly it's not proven. These goats went extinct at something like 1000 BCE

It is a mammal which is why it's so fascinating! The goat bones have a growth pattern only found in reptiles suggesting it had adapted to varying availability of food. Other morpholigic changes (smaller brain, smaller eyes) also suggest that it had at a minimum evolved to withstand low nutrition periods. The working theory to these observed structures is that this mammal a rare example of a warm blooded creature turning cold blooded. Stranger things have happened though, the evolutionary path of whales is particularly strange.

nsm 2y ago
Reminds me of Adrian Tchaikovsky's new book Saturation Point. I don't want to reveal any spoilers, but it is about warm-blooded/cold-blooded and applicability to quicker adaptation.
ghc 2y ago
> The working theory to these observed structures is that this mammal a rare example of a warm blooded creature turning cold blooded. I was so excited to read about this, but it turns out further research found that all ruminants possess these structures: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11264 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11264 > Our study supplies the strongest evidence so far that homeothermic endotherms arrest growth seasonally, which precludes the use of lines of arrested growth as an argument in support of ectothermy. The neat thing about this goat is how it now is part of a body of evidence that dinosaurs were endotherms.
- cogman10 2y ago
  This is also neat. Thanks for sharing :).

sandworm101 2y ago

Warmbloodedness and homeostasis are slightly different things. There are mammals that can radically drop their body temperatures (hibernation) as there are a few fish that can raise them (great white sharks).

cogman10 2y ago
What lends credibility to the cold blooded theory is that the island is located just south of Spain. Climate wise it simply never gets super cold there. But certainly it's not proven. These goats went extinct at something like 1000 BCE