Current Biology (2016) Psittacosaurus sp. SMF R 4970
Joel Kontinen
When soft tissue was first noticed in a
dinosaur, many evolutionists refused to believe it. Now, soft tissue is
becoming an issue many scientists approve of. How about the cloaca, that is a
single orifice used for excretion, urination, mating and laying eggs.
”A fossil dinosaur originally
discovered in northwestern China is so exquisitely preserved that the shape of
its cloaca – the opening used for excretion and mating – is visible for the
first time.
The evidence has actually been in
plain sight. The psittacosaurus – a kind of
early ceratopsian related to
Triceratops that lived around 120 million years ago – has been on
public display at the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History in Frankfurt,
Germany, for over a decade and several scientific papers have already been
written about its primitive feathers and colouring.”
Source:
Le Page Michael. 2020. Dinosaur fossil with preserved genital orifice hints how they mated. New Scientist 22 October.
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