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A paleontologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature is countering decades of studies that assert that some dinosaurs can be identified as male or female based on the shapes and sizes of their bones.
Dr. Jordan Mallon, a dinosaur specialist at the museum, argues instead that the fossil evidence for these distinctions is inconclusive and, as a result, it might be time to "rewrite the textbooks." His report, published today in the online journal Paleobiology, focusses on the biological principle of sexual dimorphism, where males and females of a species can be distinguished based on physical characteristics other than sexual organs.
"I'm not saying that dinosaurs were not dimorphic, but I am saying that there's no existing fossil evidence to suggest that they were. The jury is still out," says Mallon.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-03-male-female-scientists-evidence-sex.html#jCp
longship
(40,416 posts)Aristus
(66,285 posts)I don't know if there is any significant dimorphism in such animals as turtles and crocs.
Birds, OTOH, tend to show some dimorphism. But as far as I know, it's limited to color of plumage.
Laffy Kat
(16,373 posts)pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)I was expecting a very interesting thread.
Laffy Kat
(16,373 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)Nevermind.
oldcynic
(385 posts)yagotme
(2,911 posts)they're known to bite, even at that age...