1st preserved dinosaur butthole is 'perfect' and 'unique,' paleontologist says

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Quote

This was a multipurpose hole.

 

The first dinosaur butthole ever discovered is shedding light where the sun don't shine. The discovery reveals how dinosaurs used this multipurpose opening — scientifically known as a cloacal vent — for pooping, peeing, breeding and egg laying. 

 

The dinosaur's derrière is so well preserved, researchers could see the remnants of two small bulges by its "back door," which might have housed musky scent glands that the reptile possibly used during courtship — an anatomical quirk also seen in living crocodilians, said scientists who studied the specimen.

 

Although this dinosaur's caboose shares some characteristics with the backsides of some living creatures, it's also a one-of-a-kind opening, the researchers found. "The anatomy is unique," study lead researcher Jakob Vinther, a paleobiologist at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, told Live Science. It doesn't quite look like the opening on birds, which are the closest living relatives of dinosaurs. It does look a bit like the back opening on a crocodile, he said, but it's different in some ways. "It's its own cloaca, shaped in its perfect, unique way," Vinther said.

 

The well-preserved booty belongs to the dinosaur Psittacosaurus, a bristly tailed, Labrador-size, horn-faced dinosaur, meaning it was a relative of Triceratops. Like its famous tri-horned cousin, Psittacosaurus lived during the Cretaceous period, which lasted from about 145 million to 65 million years ago. Previously, Vinther and his colleagues had studied this Psittacosaurus specimen, found in China, to determine its skin color, and at the time, he noted that its nether regions were preserved. 

 

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Live Science

 

 

 

 

 

 

A close-up look of the preserved Psittacosaurus cloacal vent (top) and an illustration of how it may have looked (bottom).  (Image credit: Vinther J. et al. Current Biology. (2021))

 

 

 

...a 100 million year old butthole.

 

[FloatingFatMan]

25 minutes ago, Jim K said:

...a 100 million year old butthole.

Hey, this isn't the Trump thread!

 

[Jim K Global Moderator]

25 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Hey, this isn't the Trump thread!

 

Right, but he wasn't "perfect" or "unique". 😉