How would this have worked? Are they any animals today that do something similar?
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An elephant uses its ears to help maintain body temperature. When it gets too hot, blood flow to the ears increase and the elephant sticks them out away from its body, exposing more surface area to the air. The blood coursing through the thin membranes of the ears effectively transfers heat to the air returning a bit cooler into the rest of the body. The elephant can also flap its ears to increase this heat exchange or pull its ears tight to decrease it. Lots of animals have similar regulatory mechanisms – birds spread their wings and flap them slightly to increase heat dissipation, lizards raise spines on their backs exposing a membrane to the air, etc. Stegosaurus plates may have served a similar function.
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