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For the first time, scientists have managed to rebuild a dinosaur’s sewer. There was even some fossilized poop in the opening.
For the first time, researchers have managed to describe and reconstruct the cloaca of a dinosaur, that is, the mouth that was used for both urine, feces and mating. Like today’s birds and many other living animals.
In the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, there is an unusually well-preserved fossil. The fossil represents a Psittacosaurus (parrot lizard), a relatively small dinosaur that lived in the early Cretaceous period about 130 million years ago.
Thanks to this fossil, researchers at the University of Bristol, UK, have now been able to describe, and even reconstruct, the hole in the tail of a dinosaur, or rather its sewer. That is, the mouth through which both urine and feces passed, and which was also used in mating.
Everything may seem strange, even disgusting, but the truth is that humans (and many other mammals) are the ones who deviate. Most vertebrates, such as birds, reptiles, and amphibians, as well as many fish, have sewers.
The research, which is presented in the journal Current Biology, shows, among other things, that the current sewer is reminiscent of those found in crocodiles today, which is not that surprising since crocodiles are the dinosaurs and the most living relatives. nearby birds.
University of Bristol researcher Jakob Vinther, who led the research, likens the dinosaur sewer opening to a handy multi-tool, which could be used for just about anything.
Research shows that the area around the opening was likely heavily pigmented with the help of melanin.
– Our reconstruction shows that the dinosaur’s back was covered in a dark shade of pigment that was much darker than the rest of the body. We suspect it was to make their sewer more visible and do some publicity, to attract a partner, Jakob Vinther tells videnskab.dk.
Thus, the cloaca and its appearance were also used in sexual contexts, in relation to mating, something that, for example, some salamanders do today.