Question

Were dinosaurs warm blooded and would they have had some sort of fur?

Maybe. There is some evidence that the later dinosaurs were warm-blooded (endothermic), judging from the high metabolism implied by their large size and their walking patterns. There are lots of books and on-line resources that discuss this question, for example, http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/communication/rothery/Rothery.html and http://home13.inet.tele.dk/palm/warmweb.htm. The summary from the US Geological Survey [http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dinosaurs/warmblood.html] is "Some paleontologists think that all dinosaurs were "warm-blooded" in the same sense that modern birds and mammals are: that is, they had rapid metabolic rates. Other scientists think it unlikely that any dinosaur could have had a rapid metabolic rate. Some scientists think that very big dinosaurs could have had warm bodies because of their large body size, just as some sea turtles do today. It may be that some dinosaurs were warm-blooded. The problem is that it is hard to find evidence that unquestionably shows what dinosaur metabolisms were like." As far as I know there is no evidence of fur, but there have been quite a few recent cases where fossil evidence of feathers has been found. These feathers are not limited to the transitional forms between dinosaurs and birds, and feathers may have been quite common; see the Wikipedia discussion at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feathered_dinosaurs]. David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
March 28, 2007