# Fossilized Dinosaur Cloaca! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 19, 2021, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossilized-dinosaur-cloaca/930914 "2021-01-19T20:59:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossilized-dinosaur-cloaca/930914/1 "2021-01-19T20:59:13Z")
We finally know what a dinosaur cloaca looks like. Or, as the CNN article is headlined, **This fossil reveals how dinosaurs peed, pooped and had sex** > [@](#): > > We know a lot about dinosaurs – what [they looked like,](https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/26/world/new-feathered-dinosaur-raptor-scn/index.html) [what they ate](https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/02/world/nodosaur-fossil-stomach-contents-scn-trnd/index.html)and [what killed them off](https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/29/world/dinosaurs-extinction-scn/index.html) – but no fossils have definitively preserved two dinosaurs in the act of mating. > > However, a fossil from China of a Psittacosaurus is so well preserved that the opening the Labrador-size dinosaur used to pee, poop and reproduce is visible, allowing paleontologists to study it for the first time. > > … > > “It is very unique. Most cloacas form a kind of slit. Sometimes it’s a vertical split, sometimes it’s a smiley face, sometimes it’s a sour face. This thing has a V-shaped structure with a pair of nice flaring lips and there’s not a living groups of animals that have morphology like that,” Vinther said. “It is somewhat similar to crocodiles but still unique.” > > What’s more, **the outer margins of the cloaca are highly pigmented with melanin**. While they don’t know for sure what color it was, it likely would have contrasted with the dinosaur’s pale underbelly, Vinther said. > This distinctive pigmentation could mean the vent was used to display and signal, similar to living baboons and some breeding salamanders. Bolding mine [https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/world/dinosaur-fossil-sex-study-scn/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/world/dinosaur-fossil-sex-study-scn/index.html) Historical reference: > [@Dinosaur cloaca](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaur-cloaca/523242): > > As Cecil explained in [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2357/how-did-dinosaurs-have-sex](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2357/how-did-dinosaurs-have-sex) , the urinary, digestive, and reproductive tracts of dinosaurs meet in a chamber called the cloaca, from which the appropriate excretions and secretions leave the body. My question: is the actual opening also called the cloaca, or is it something else, such as cloacal opening, anus, or anal opening? I’m writing a short story which is narrated by a palentologist, and I need to make him sound like he … ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossilized-dinosaur-cloaca/930914/2 "2021-01-19T21:28:11Z")
**Fossilized Dinosaur Cloaca!** BAND NAME! ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossilized-dinosaur-cloaca/930914/3 "2021-01-19T22:10:30Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > peed, pooped and had sex Further evidence that all those nasty librul political commentariat taking pot shots at the reptilian brain of the GOP are 180 degrees in error. They are looking at the wrong end. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossilized-dinosaur-cloaca/930914/4 "2021-01-20T02:07:50Z")
So happy that this wasn’t a Mitch McConnell joke… ---
**Author:** ![CoconutPete](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coconutpete/32/5294_2.png) [@CoconutPete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoconutPete)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossilized-dinosaur-cloaca/930914/5 "2021-01-20T05:02:43Z")
Also band name: **Nice Flaring Lips** ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossilized-dinosaur-cloaca/930914/6 "2021-01-20T16:02:49Z")
You would need a real stoner to hump that. A boner won’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossilized-dinosaur-cloaca/930914/7 "2021-01-20T17:38:46Z")
The headline in my Google news feed was > 1st preserved dinosaur butthole is ‘perfect’ and ‘unique,’ paleontologist says ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossilized-dinosaur-cloaca/930914/8 "2021-01-20T17:41:20Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > 1st preserved dinosaur butthole is ‘perfect’ and ‘unique,’ paleontologist says Just like a Trump telephone call ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossilized-dinosaur-cloaca/930914/9 "2021-01-20T18:29:18Z")
Through phylogenetic bracketing I think we could have already concluded that dinosaurs had cloaca (since birds and crocs do), but this is still a very unique find. The fact that we are now able to tell what color dinosaurs were by studying fossilized pigments is also mindblowing, especially when you consider how recently we even started doing that. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossilized-dinosaur-cloaca/930914/10 "2021-01-21T10:59:30Z")
If the dinosaur is that well preserved, is any of the internal anatomy preserved along with it? Is the internal plumbing still there? ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossilized-dinosaur-cloaca/930914/11 "2021-01-21T20:52:47Z")
My recollection of the article I read was that no, nothing internal was preserved. So they don’t know if this one was male or female. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossilized-dinosaur-cloaca/930914/12 "2021-01-22T01:56:29Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > > [@CalMeacham](#): > > > > peed, pooped and had sex > > Further evidence that all those nasty librul political commentariat taking pot shots at the reptilian brain of the GOP are 180 degrees in error. They are looking at the wrong end. MPSIMS is the wrong place for political potshots. Please take it to P&E. That goes for the rest of you, too.