Paleontologists spend their entire academic career studying the anatomy of dinosaurs. Now a team of scientists from Bristol University has finally detailed a dinosaur's cesspool, or vent, which is used for everything from defecating and urinating to finding a partner to breed with (or, less scientifically, a jack of all trades) . acts asshole).
In a new study published Tuesday in the journal Current Biology, scientists uncovered a number of theories about the vent ventilation of a dog-sized dinosaur named Psittacosaurus, a relative of the Early Cretaceous Triceratops that lived about 120 million years ago.
"I noticed the cesspool a few years ago after we reconstructed the color patterns of this dinosaur using a remarkable fossil on display in the Senckenberg Museum in Germany that clearly preserved its skin and color patterns," said Dr. Jakob Vinther of the School of University at Bristol of Earth Sciences said in a statement on Tuesday.
"It took us a long time to finish because no one ever bothered to compare the appearance of the cloacal openings in live animals, so it was largely uncharted territory," added Vinther.
The researchers reveal that the dinosaur's cloaca has characteristics similar to those on alligators and crocodiles. The outer cloaca areas of the dinosaur were probably also heavily pigmented. This pigmentation may have been used to attract a partner, much like baboons use theirs.
"We found that the vent looks different in many different groups of tetrapods, but in most cases it doesn't say much about the sex of an animal." Dr. Diane Kelly of the University of Massachusetts Amherst said. "These distinguishing features are hidden in the sewer and unfortunately not preserved in this fossil."
It's not just the look of the dino print that caught pals' attention, it's its smell as well. The large, pigmented lobes on either side of the cloacas could also contain musky scent glands to attract a partner's attention.
"Knowing that at least some dinosaurs were signaling each other gives paleo-artists exciting freedom to speculate about a whole range of plausible interactions during dinosaur advertisements," paleo-artist and study artist Robert Nicholls said in a statement.
"It's a game changer!"
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