Dinosaur renaissance
A scientific revolution that revived dinosaurs as active, warm-blooded animals.
The dinosaur renaissance was a scientific shift starting in the mid-1960s that revived both scholarly and public fascination with dinosaurs. It was triggered by evidence suggesting dinosaurs were active, warm-blooded creatures, not the slow, cold-blooded reptiles they were thought to be for much of the early twentieth century. Key figures in this change were John Ostrom, who proposed that birds descended from coelurosaurian dinosaurs, and Robert Bakker, who argued that dinosaurs were warm-blooded like modern mammals and birds. Bakker often described this as a “renaissance,” similar to the late nineteenth century, and called the period between the Dinosaur Wars and this revival “the dinosaur doldrums.”
The renaissance transformed thinking about nearly all aspects of dinosaur biology—physiology, evolution, behavior, ecology, and extinction—and also captured the public imagination, influencing many cultural portrayals of dinosaurs.
**Dinosaurs and the origin of birds** In the late 1800s, some scientists saw a close link between birds and dinosaurs, viewing dinosaurs as an intermediate step between reptiles and birds. After Darwin’s *On the Origin of Species* in 1859, Thomas Henry Huxley argued that birds evolved from dinosaurs, citing skeletal similarities among dinosaurs, *Archaeopteryx*, and modern birds. But in 1926, Gerhard Heilmann’s book *The Origin of Birds* dismissed this idea, claiming dinosaurs lacked a furcula. For decades, the accepted view was that birds came from crocodylomorph and thecodont ancestors. This changed in 1964 when Ostrom discovered *Deinonychus antirrhopus*, a small theropod with striking skeletal resemblance to birds. Ostrom argued Huxley was right, and birds evolved from dinosaurs. Although similar birdlike dinosaurs like *Velociraptor* had been known for years, no connection had been made. After Ostrom’s work, the idea that birds are dinosaurs gained support and is now nearly universally accepted.
**Dinosaur monophyly** Around 1880, dinosaurs were mostly seen as a monophyletic group—sharing a last common ancestor not shared with other reptiles. But Harry Seeley disagreed, splitting them into Saurischia and Ornithischia, which were considered archosaurs with no special relationship. This made “dinosaur” a popular term without scientific meaning, a standard view for much of the twentieth century. In 1974, Bakker and Peter Gal
- field
- Paleontology
- known_for
- Reviving interest in dinosaurs as active, warm-blooded animals and re-establishing the dinosaur–bird link
- key_proponents
- John Ostrom, Robert Bakker
- time_period
- Mid-1960s onward
Lore & Background
The dinosaur renaissance began in the mid-1960s, driven by research suggesting dinosaurs were warm-blooded and active, contrary to the earlier view of them as sluggish reptiles. John Ostrom's 1964 discovery of Deinonychus antirrhopus, a theropod with unmistakable skeletal resemblance to birds, led him to argue that birds evolved from dinosaurs, reviving a hypothesis first proposed by Thomas Henry Huxley after Darwin's Origin of Species. Robert Bakker, in a series of papers and popular articles starting with his 1968 paper 'The superiority of dinosaurs', argued strenuously that dinosaurs were warm-blooded and capable of sustained high activity, frequently referring to an ongoing 'dinosaur renaissance'.
Reader's Guide
The dinosaur renaissance profoundly shifted thinking on nearly all aspects of dinosaur biology, including physiology, evolution, behaviour, ecology, and extinction. It sparked public imagination and inspired many cultural depictions of dinosaurs. The debates over warm-bloodedness led to new methods like bone histology for determining growth rates, and today it is generally thought that many or perhaps all dinosaurs had higher metabolic rates than living reptiles, though the situation is more complex than Bakker originally proposed. The renaissance also undermined the assumption that dinosaurs became extinct because they were inferior to mammals, as the discovery of iridium in the Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary layer and the Chicxulub Crater suggested a catastrophic meteor impact. The idea that birds are dinosaurs, revived by Ostrom, gained support and is now almost universally accepted. The term 'dinosaur renaissance' was coined by Bakker in his April 1975 Scientific American article, which started popularising the new views.
Did You Know?
- The term 'dinosaur renaissance' was coined by Robert Bakker in his April 1975 Scientific American article.
- John Ostrom's 1964 discovery of Deinonychus antirrhopus led him to argue that birds evolved from dinosaurs, reviving a hypothesis from Thomas Henry Huxley.
- Bakker and Peter Galton's 1974 paper in Nature argued that dinosaurs were a natural monophyletic group and should be raised to a new class including birds.
- The first rigorous study of dinosaur nesting behaviour was conducted by Bob Makela and Jack Horner in the late 1970s, showing that Maiasaura cared for its young.
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