# How would the worlds largest dinosaurs have mated without killing themselves. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 4, 2008, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765 "2008-08-04T01:44:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2008, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765/21 "2008-08-04T21:02:07Z")
But growing to immense size after reproductive years would be detrimental to survival, unless there were a very great deal of parental care for young ones (i.e., probably more even than humans exhibit). You need to eat a lot of food to get to such size, and a lot more to maintain yourself at that size, and that’s all food that your offspring could be eating instead. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2008, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765/22 "2008-08-04T21:03:13Z")
There are fossils of a good many large dinosaur species with fractured pelvises (that eventually healed), which some have taken as evidence that mating between these beasts was not without peril. I’m not sure if we have any direct evidence that mating was the cause for such injuries, however. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765/23 "2008-08-06T01:08:10Z")
No one is sure just exactly how a sauropod with a vent fifteen or twenty feet off the ground managed to lay eggs. Squatting down would be a major challenge; some think maybe the female’s cloaca distended down to the ground when laying. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765/24 "2008-08-07T06:45:08Z")
[QUOTE=Lumpy] No one is sure just exactly how a sauropod with a vent f **ifteen or twenty feet off the ground** managed to lay eggs. Squatting down would be a major challenge; some think maybe the **female’s cloaca distended down to the ground** when laying. [/QUOTE] :eek: Thank you for giving me nightmares for the rest of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765/25 "2008-08-07T06:47:26Z")
Prehensile cloaca? ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765/26 "2008-08-07T18:13:54Z")
Ovipositor. Note that while there may well be speculation for such in sauropods, there is, as yet, no fossil evidence confirming that they (or any other dinosaurs, for that matter) had them. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765/27 "2012-07-12T13:28:47Z")
Ooo, pictures!: [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/09/dinosaur-sex\_n\_1659391.html?utm\_hp\_ref=mostpopular#slide=more235982](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/09/dinosaur-sex_n_1659391.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular#slide=more235982) ---
**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:** [July 12, 2012, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765/28 "2012-07-12T13:48:47Z")
Dinosaurs didn’t care. Live Fast, Die Young, Leave a Good-Looking Fossil was their motto. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765/29 "2012-07-12T13:52:01Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Another possibility is that the huge dinos mated while they where still small enough, then grew to gargantuan sizes after their reproductive years. > [@Rich\_Mann](#): > > How would this evolve? I can’t imagine how this could be advantageous and be selected for. I note that with [stoats](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoat#Reproduction_and_development), female are sexually mature for the purposes of insemination when only 2-3 weeks old. > [@](#): > > Males become sexually mature at 10–11 months, while females are sexually mature at the age of 2–3 weeks whilst still blind, deaf and hairless, and are usually mated with adult males before being weaned And stoats don’t have any “gets too large to mate later” problem, so early mating/late birthing can clearly evolve, since it has. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765/30 "2012-07-12T14:48:43Z")
> [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](#): > > although I have no site for this.. Good, I wouldn’t want to see that anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765/31 "2012-07-12T15:22:13Z")
> [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](#): > > The mating was only PART of the problem! > > The tough part was finding a restaruant large enough to take your dino date to, first… You’re just in time – [tomorrow](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9205430&postcount=75) is Friday the 13th. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765/32 "2012-07-12T16:51:44Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Ooo, pictures!: [Dinosaur Sex Experts Concur That Animals Mated Front To Back (SLIDESHOW) | HuffPost Impact](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/09/dinosaur-sex_n_1659391.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular#slide=more235982) _Your Honors, the Court of Appeal should vacate the judgement below, the Trial Judge is clearly…weird, he looked for pictures of Dinosaur sex for 4 years_ :D:D Seriously, that is super cool. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765/33 "2012-07-12T17:02:04Z")
I also heard a report recently that more sophisticated methods of estimation are suggesting that big dinosaurs may not have been as heavy as we thought. I can’t remember the term for the newer estimation method, but it involves digitally wrapping a model of the skeleton of the beast in a “skin” and then extrapolating how much more it would weigh than bones alone, based on data from living animals. So they might have been lighter and more athletic than we tend to think. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765/34 "2012-07-12T17:05:36Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > _Your Honors, the Court of Appeal should vacate the judgement below, the Trial Judge is clearly…weird, he looked for pictures of Dinosaur sex for 4 years_ > > :D:D > > Seriously, that is super cool. _Overruled!_ Hey, I can’t help what AOL/HP pushes onto my computer… ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765/35 "2012-07-12T17:05:47Z")
Why is this even news? Missionaries didn’t exist then.:dubious: 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-worlds-largest-dinosaurs-have-mated-without-killing-themselves/458765.md?page=1)