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How did dinosaurs sleep?

We know surprisingly little about the sleeping habits of dinosaurs.

Published: July 10, 2022 at 10:00 am

As strange as it might be to imagine, dinosaurs would have slept. Would they lie down, or sleep standing up? Would they take quick rests or long slumbers? We don’t really know the answers. But there is one dinosaur whose sleep habits are well understood: the tiny puppy-sized troodontid theropodMei long, a close relative of birds.

Two skeletons of this 125-million-year-old dinosaur have been found fossilised in a sleeping position (pictured below). It seems as if a volcanic eruption suffocated and buried these dinosaurs while they were napping, similar to how some humans were caught unaware at Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Mei long in sleeping position © Bruce McAdam/Wikipedia

The skeletons are in the same ‘tuck in’ sleeping posture of today’s birds: the body sits on folded limbs and the head is tucked in between the arm and torso. Birds sleep this way to conserve heat in their heads – a necessity for warm-blooded animals. Perhaps this is a sign that some dinosaurs were warm-blooded too.

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Asked by: Rowena Brosnan, Manchester

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