How Did Dinosaurs Mate? Scientists scramble up and down to find answers
. We were at the University of Bristol in the UK, and Winsel was a professor of macroevolution, specializing in the fossil record. After resuming the conversation, I looked around his room, trying to avoid eye contact. He said exactly what my inner child wanted the paleontologist to say.
. Professor Winsel's bookshelf is filled with layers of collections of scholarly books and papers, mixed with relics from lost prehistoric worlds, that look like layers of fossilized sections. The most conspicuous of these prehistoric fossils is an ancient insect whose delicate wing texture and mottled colors are still discernible. There is also the remains of a vampire squid with a well-preserved black ink sac that still contains melanin. There is also a strange breed of ancient worms that are close relatives to the worms we find on coral reefs today. In the corner of the room was an antique wooden cabinet with drawers, in which I expected to house assorted other interesting fossil animals. This room feels like an exhibition hall between a museum and a library.
. Thanks to the development of modern science and technology, scientists are now making amazing discoveries at a record rate about the many nuanced truths about dinosaur life, many of which were unimaginable just a few decades ago.
. Molecular biology studies have determined that theropod dinosaurs 76 million years ago had red blood cells and collagen, and among this type of dinosaurs was Tyrannosaurus rex, the largest carnivore on earth. The study found indicative chemical signatures that could explain that Triceratops and Stegosaurus were rare cold-blooded dinosaurs, and the spiky, heavily armored herbivore Anosaurus was orange-red in appearance. Scientists have also found that Spinosaurus, known for having a "giant sail" on its back, likely used its 15-centimeter teeth and crocodile-like jaws to hunt in deep water, as well as evidence that Iguanodon may have been surprisingly smart and able to fly The pterosaurs (of course not dinosaurs in the strict sense, the actual classification belongs to winged reptiles) often walk to find prey.
. But exactly how dinosaurs mate, or any research on how dinosaurs mate and reproduce, has so far been completely blank. Until today, scientists can't even accurately distinguish whether dinosaur fossils are male or female, let alone how dinosaurs courted and mated, or what kind of reproductive organs they had. Without these basic knowledge, most of the physiological phenomena and behaviors of dinosaurs will still be a cloud of fog. But one thing is certain: dinosaurs certainly mate.er).
. Returning to the topic of Tyrannosaurus rex fossils just now, Winsel explained that to solve the mystery of the strange posture of the pair of Tyrannosaurus rex, another ancient lake site, the Messel Pit in Germany, can provide a clue. The Messer Stone Pit was originally a quarry, and later became famous for the discovery of a large number of well-preserved animal and plant fossils, and is now listed as a world natural heritage. The remains of plants and animals preserved in this fossil paradise look as if they were squeezed into a book. Fossils found so far include fox-sized horses, giant ants, early primates, and several animals with full stomachs, including a snake with a lizard in its stomach beetle. A large number of freshwater turtles have also been found, at least nine pairs of which died suddenly during mating. Several pairs of tails touch while still mating. The mating patterns of freshwater turtles in the Messer Fossil Pit have significant implications for Winsel's theory of dinosaur mating.
. The reason why Messer Pit is a prehistoric burial ground for a huge number of ancient animals comes from a poisonous secret. In the geological age of the Eocene (Eocene), 57 million to 36 million years ago, the Messer pit should be a steep water-filled crater surrounded by dense subtropical forests. There is no scientific conclusion as to how the crater lake contributed to the sudden death of so many plants and animals. There is a hypothesis that the lake is still active geologically after its formation and periodically releases mist of carbon dioxide that can suffocate life around it. These unfortunate turtles may have been trapped and killed in a carbon dioxide mist release event, and then sank to the bottom of the lake, where their mating posture was preserved for tens of millions of years in the oxygen-deprived silt layer.
. However, these freshwater turtles who were in "high lust" at the time of death were not exactly the same as the usual mating posture, one riding on the other, but facing back to back, as if the two turtles suddenly changed their minds and wanted to mate. Turn your back on each other.
Sensing my confusion, Professor Winsel leaned back in his chair and explained that mating freshwater turtles should gradually separate after death, but remain connected because the genitals are still connected. Winsor's look and tone suggest that he considers discussing prehistoric animal sex a normal topic at all.
F. reshwater turtles mating from Messer Pit return to this oddly poseable T. rex fossil as the pair share some uncanny similarities. The T. rex pair "were separated from each other, but with their tails overlapping each other. I think the pair had a sudden catduring mating," Winsel said.
Beyond that, there is no other case evidence, and Winsel admits his theory is highly hypothetical and so far an unpublished idea. Dinosaurs still have a lot of soft organ fossils that have not yet been discovered. If this pair of Tyrannosaurus rex is really locked in ancient copulation, this phenomenon will reveal some information about the soft organs of a certain dinosaur. Yes, that means that Tyrannosaurus rex, and possibly T. rex, probably had penises.astrophe
sunken lake bottom
However, there is another, clearer source of information about the truth about dinosaur sex, a fossil that has captured the world's attention with its lower body. This is the aforementioned parrot dragonWinsel took me to see this treasure in his collection, and explained to me the ins and outs behind it.
This is an ancient ecosystem in Northeast China, the Jehol Biota of the Early Cretaceous. Let's say it's a sunny day in this temperate land, and the little Psittacosaurus decides to leave its wooded home and head to one of the area's many lakes to quench its thirst. Measuring about 91 centimeters from head to tail and reminiscent of an unusually stocky Labrador, the little Psittacosaurus was almost an adult, but not yet sexually experienced.
The parrot dragon walked to the lake on two feet, having stopped walking on all fours as an adult, but tragedy struck. Just as it bent down to take a sip of water with its parrot beak, it accidentally slipped and fell into the lake and drowned. When it fell to the bottom of the lake, it lay on its back in an indecent position, accidentally saving its genitals, so that it can be curiously pondered by future humans.
Of course, Winsel specifically wanted me to see this famous penis. He pointed to a black round piece of skin under the tail of Psittacosaurus, which is the private part of the dinosaur, which has been preserved after all kinds of difficulties since the early Cretaceous period. That era is so far away from us that it is equivalent to a time span of 1.6 million times the average human life span today.
Alas, the Psittacosaurus in Winther's office isn't really a fossil, what I'm looking at now is a full-scale model he commissioned himself. But the models are perfect and meticulously crafted, and the exact stripes found on the original fossilized skin are reproduced as accurately as possible, down to the markings.
So, what information can this little dinosaur's private parts tell us?
For starters, like its close relatives like birds and crocodiles, this dinosaur had a cloaca. The cloaca, a multipurpose excretory opening, is common to all terrestrial vertebrates except mammals. This is a separate orifice used for defecation, urination, intercourse, and childbirth. It's not unexpected, but it's a new finding, as no one had previously demonstrated that dinosaurs shared reproductive structures with their evolutionary cousins.
Professor Winsel said, "So you can look, there's a lot of pigment down here (he pointed to the cloaca under the Psittacosaurus's tail)." He explained that this is melanin, and it may be that melanin is so preserved in this fossil. The goWhile we generally only know melanin as the dark compound that gives our skin its color, melanin has a myriad of uses in the natural world, from squid ink to the protective covering behind our eyes. Melanin is also a potent antimicrobial and is commonly found in high concentrations in the livers of amphibians and reptiles, where it functions to prevent the growth of potentially harmful microorganisms. Crucially, however, melanin has also been found to play a protective role in many other living environments.
"Insects, for example...use melanin as a kind of immune system to protect themselves from infection. So if you poke a hole in a moth with a needle (which I don't recommend), then you poke the hole Melanin will be secreted around." Professor Winsel said.
Because of the immune function of melanin, many animals, including humans, have a relatively high concentration of melanin around the genitals, so the skin color of this part will also be darker. As with dinosaurs, so with humans. Looking at this distant human relative before my eyes, as one of my colleagues pointed out, I felt as if it was being photographed and permanently frozen in this pose as it walked past me, finding dinosaurs so close to us, It feels weird.
But there are more interesting discoveries, and it's clear that all my weirdness so far is just a warm-up, and there's a lot more to come. Before I knew it, Winthel enthusiastically explained to me many other features of the lower body of the Psittacosaurus.
"Now that we can reconstruct what the Psittacosaurus' cloaca looked like, we can show that it had two lips open like this," said Prof Winsel, who spread his fingers in a V shape. "There is melanin outside the opening. But the interesting thing here is that the melanin is not at the opening (if it is to prevent microbial infection, then the melanin should be at the opening), so the melanin is placed outside for publicity."
If true, it would be unheard of, as baboons are showing off their hips to members of the opposite sex, since such courtship is extremely rare even in modern birds, the descendants of avian dinosaurs. Dinosaurs "used a lot of visual cues," Winsel said, explaining that dinosaurs had an excellent sense of color, unlike most mammals, which can only see two colors, and birds can see as well as humans. In addition to the three colors, ultraviolet rays can still be seen. "But it doesn't make sense for birds to show the cloaca because it's covered in feathers." Likewise, crocodiles rely more on scent to attrWinsel speculates that dinosaurs, like birds, might have had excellent color vision, in which case those without feathers might have jumped at the chance, "Why don't you show off your cloaca?"
Unfortunately, we couldn't tell if this Psittacosaurus was a male or a female, nor what sex organs it had, since their respective sex organs were hidden in the cloaca. This leaves two possible mating strategies. Or the so-called "cloacal kiss", in which two dinosaurs are stacked on top of each other, and the male dinosaur shoots his semen directly into the female dinosaur's cloaca through the cloaca, a common mating strategy in birds. Or the more familiar version, that is, the mating method that uses the penis, which is the case with crocodiles.
With no further evidence and no other dinosaur cloaca fossils to study, the above opinion is still inconclusive.
Enough has probably been said about the genitals of dinosaurs. What about other aspects of dinosaur mating and reproduction? Will there be a courtship ceremony? Such as same-sex fights for the opposite sex, or even elaborate dances? Do males and females look different? And how can we tell which features of dinosaurs were designed to attract the oppositAttract the opposite sex
At first glance, deciphering the mating behavior of long-extinct animals may seem like an impossible task, like finding fossilized lower bodies. But Rob Knell, an evolutionary ecologist at Queen Mary, University of London, assures me there are clues lurking in the collected fossil record.
Nair told me, “One of the things that’s been done about dinosaurs is that they had a lot of weird stuff, what some people call ‘weird structures. The large sails on the back of Spinosaurus, the frills and horns on Triceratops and other ceratopsians, and the large crest on Hadrosaur are all considered sexually selective traits."
For 200 years, scientists have debated the function of these weird structures in dinosaurs, often with outlandish theories, such as hadrosaurs were aquatic animals, and their crests were used as snorkels or air chambers. Sometimes it is hard to believe because the shape of the dinosaur is too strange. For example, when the Tyrannosaurus rex fossil was discovered for the first time in 1900, it was found that its forelimbs were too small compared with its huge body, so it was not believed to belong to the Tyrannosaurus rex itself. The skeleton was originally thought to belong to another dinoBut Nair explained that in the past, paleontologists were reluctant to explain these strange shapes as a tool for attracting opposite sex or same-sex competition. They can speculate that this may be the ultimate purpose of dinosaurs, but it seems impossible not to prove this hypothesis. Not a scientific attitude.
Susannah Maidment, a senior researcher in paleontology at the Natural History Museum in London, said, "The disc on the back of Stegosaurus is an example. Or the tubular crown on the head of hadrosaurs could also be used as an example. Example... we don't know what they're used for."
Then came the era of contemporary scientific research. Back in 2012, Nair had decided to take this question a step further. He is particularly interested in studying eccentric traits that closely resemble the mating performance of animals in the modern world, or that cannot be explained by other theories. Examples include the horns and frills of Triceratops and its close clade Psittacosaurus (Psittacosaurus had unusual side spikes on its cheeks), and the crest of the predatory dinosaur Dicrotosaurus, which has a protruding crown above each eye. ridges, as well as the long necks of giants like Diplodocus, and the feathers of the dinosaur ancestors of birds.
While there's no definitive way to determine what these strange body structures are for, Nair and an international team of scientists soon realize that telling clues to intelligence can be found in the animals that have lived in the world to this day. Must know where to look.
One avenue to look for is sexual dimorphism, in which males and females of a species differ greatly in appearance. Rarely are the two sexes completely different in terms of lifestyle and survival strategies, so when there are differences in physical traits, it is usually to allow males to directly attract females (such as peacock's colorful feather capes) or to compete with the same sex for mating rights (such as stag antlers).
Unfortunately, this particular tip doesn't do much for understanding the sex lives of dinosaurs, because scientists can't yet tell the difference between males and females, and even if differences were found between individual fossils, they wouldn't be able to tell whether they were looking at different sexes or whether they were males or females. Different dinosaur branches.
Which leads to the next tip. If a feature is only present in adult dinosaurs and not in babies or juveniles, it is usually for sexual reproductive function, just like the male lion's mane is considered a sign that the male lion is ready for sexual mating . Getting started here, however, is tricky.
As early as 1942, scientists unearthed an amazing new skull dinosaur fossil in Montana, USA, which obviously belonged to a terrible predatory dinosaur, but compared with the ultimate predator king, Tyrannosaurus rex, it was nothing. Relatively small and slender. The team thus concluded that this was an adult dinosaur of a new species, and after decades of debate, the Pygmytyrannosaurus. Over the next few years, several more skeletons of what might have been this so-called dwarf tyrannosaurus were discovered.
Then in 2020, a scientific team took a closer look. They analyzed the bones of two possible dwarf tyrannosaurs and realized that it might not be a different species from tyrannosaurus rex at all, they were tyrannosaurus rex, but the body was not fully developed and died as a teenager Tyrannosaurus rex. In fact, the misunderstanding arises because these smaller juvenile T. rex looked so different from adults that they almost looked like really two unrelated species that occupied prehistoric food chains. With a unique location.
Tyrannosaurus rex wasn't the only dinosaur that evolved to have dramatic developmental changes.
"There's a huge debate about Torosaurus and Triceratops," Maidment said. Although the two dinosaurs look very similar, the former had a very large skull, one of the largest among land animals, and the neck There is a huge ruff with huge holes in it. The latter, on the other hand, are much smaller in stature and have no holes in the smaller neckMaidment said, "These are two dinosaurs that lived in the same area at the same time, both in North America at the end of the Cretaceous period. Some people think that Torosaurus is a late Triceratops, and some people think they are They are two different species.” She also cited other variants that some people think are just different life stages of Triceratops. Dragon. But no one really agrees."
Therefore, this strategy of identifying characteristics may not be effective. But luckily, there's another way, and that's modeling other aspects of this body structure that might be useful.
"What we can do is, well, [the modeling results say] this is consistent with a structure that evolved for this purpose (mating) and not consistent with a structure that evolved for any other purpose," Nair said.
The giant frill of Triceratops is an example. Over the years, successive generations of scientists have puzzled over this huge physical feature of Triceratops, with various speculations, such as protecting its neck from predators, or regulating body temperature, and even saying that it was just for Triceratops provided a place for the muscles to connect so that Triceratops could swing its horns more powerfully.
More recently, it has been suggested that neck frills may have been used to help Triceratops identify members of their own group. So, Nair and his colleagues took it a step further and found that this idea wasn't feasible, because the frills of different species of Triceratops had little variation, so it's unlikely that this was the purpose of the evolution of the frills. Since this theory may not hold true, it's reasonable to speculate that its true purpose was to impress other Triceratops or to fend off other males for a chance to mate.
Here comes the evidence. In a 2009 study, researchers analyzed the pattern of injuries on the skulls of several Triceratops and found that they were consistent with trauma left by other Triceratops fighting. Researchers may have uncovered the lingering ghosts of an ancient animal's mating competition.
Are there other courtship and mating rituals? Did male Tyrannosaurus rex really wiggle its tiny forelimbs to attract females, as the showrunners of the TV series "Prehistoric Planet" recently suggested? Could pachycephalosaurs win by headbutting in a competitive mating arena? Did male velociraptors build elaborate pergolas to please a mate, perhaps choosing only the bluest berries to adorn their mNair believes there should be other courtship and mating rituals, broadly speaking. He points out that there are many similarities between dinosaurs and birds, and that, in fact, today's birds are blood descendants of their ancient feathered dinosaur cousins, with extra beaks and missing teeth. So avian dinosaurs were more similar to today's birds, such as velociraptors, which were more like murderous turkeys than the smooth-skinned carnivores in the "Jurassic Park" series of movies.
"If you look at birds today, there's a wide range of courtship patterns that birds exhibit," Nair said. "Why couldn't dinosaurs do that? There's no reason to think that some of the weirder traits of dinosaur mating weren't passed on to birds... So, I think dinosaurs would have had a weird way of mating."
Amazingly, it might even be possible to find physical evidence of dinosaur-like courtship behavior. In 2016, scientists digging in Colorado discovered some strange rock beds that almost resemble ancient puddles.
However, closer inspection revealed clear scratches and three-toed footprints on the rock bed, which are the footprints of predators such as Tyrannosaurus rex during the Cretaceous period. These marks are not accidental undulations on the land surface, but made by dinosaurs, and they look like enlarged versions of the marks left by ostriches today.
Female ostriches are difficult to please very picky lovers, so male ostriches must perform complex courtship dances to make females fall in love. The complex courtship ritual also includes a vigorous wing-flapping sprint and a "ground scraping ceremony" to demonstrate digging, a skill needed for nesting on the ground. Researchers believe that Tyrannosaurus rex may have performed the same courtship behavior 100 million years ago, based on scratches left on the rock bed in Colorado.
However, Nair argues that we may never know the wacky details of most dinosaur mating rituals. Even living relatives of dinosaurs, such as various birds of paradise, have various manifestations of their mating rituals. "Even if you try to predict, you won't get very far," he said.
But in recent years, humans have gained a lot of previously unimaginable understanding of the lives of dinosaurs. Who knows, maybe decades later, with the advancement of science and technology and the increase of knowledge, the perverted and weird courtship methods of dinosaurs will be deciphered by humans one by one. At that time, the amount of information in this regard will be disturbing. Yes, then we'll also know what dinosaur genitals Nair believes there should be other courtship and mating rituals, broadly speaking. He points out that there are many similarities between dinosaurs and birds, and that, in fact, today's birds are blood descendants of their ancient feathered dinosaur cousins, with extra beaks and missing teeth. So avian dinosaurs were more similar to today's birds, such as velociraptors, which were more like murderous turkeys than the smooth-skinned carnivores in the "Jurassic Park" series of movies.
"If you look at birds today, there's a wide range of courtship patterns that birds exhibit," Nair said. "Why couldn't dinosaurs do that? There's no reason to think that some of the weirder traits of dinosaur mating weren't passed on to birds... So, I think dinosaurs would have had a weird way of mating."
Amazingly, it might even be possible to find physical evidence of dinosaur-like courtship behavior. In 2016, scientists digging in Colorado discovered some strange rock beds that almost resemble ancient puddles.
However, closer inspection revealed clear scratches and three-toed footprints on the rock bed, which are the footprints of predators such as Tyrannosaurus rex during the Cretaceous period. These marks are not accidental undulations on the land surface, but made by dinosaurs, and they look like enlarged versions of the marks left by ostriches today.
Female ostriches are difficult to please very picky lovers, so male ostriches must perform complex courtship dances to make females fall in love. The complex courtship ritual also includes a vigorous wing-flapping sprint and a "ground scraping ceremony" to demonstrate digging, a skill needed for nesting on the ground. Researchers believe that Tyrannosaurus rex may have performed the same courtship behavior 100 million years ago, based on scratches left on the rock bed in Colorado.
However, Nair argues that we may never know the wacky details of most dinosaur mating rituals. Even living relatives of dinosaurs, such as various birds of paradise, have various manifestations of their mating rituals. "Even if you try to predict, you won't get very far," he said.
But in recent years, humans have gained a lot of previously unimaginable understanding of the lives of dinosaurs. Who knows, maybe decades later, with the advancement of science and technology and the increase of knowledge, the perverted and weird courtship methods of dinosaurs will be deciphered by humans one by one. At that time, the amount of information in this regard will be disturbing. Yes, then we'll also know what dinosaur genitals looked like.looked like.asterpieces? ruff.discovery was saur.e sex?act mates.odness worked..
