Scientists Reveal How Dinosaurs May Have Had Sex and the Length of a T-Rex's Sexual Organ
Ever wonder how dinosaurs had sex?
Surprisingly, paleontologists have dedicated a great amount of research on how these 30-ton creatures larger than four-story buildings might have had sex, and most researchers have concluded that dinosaurs may have mated like dogs.
"All dinosaurs used the same basic position to mate," Dr. Beverly Halstead, an English researcher who was one of the first to tackle the subject before his death in 1991, said in an article that was published in the now-defunct science magazine Omni in 1988. "Mounting from the rear, he put his forelimbs on her shoulders, lifting one hind limb across her back and twisting his tail under hers."
Scientific illustrators have also tried to recreate the intriguing rituals of the prehistoric beasts, including an artist who worked with Dr. Halstead on a magazine article in 1988.
Like modern-day birds and reptiles, experts say that male and female dinosaurs have what's called a cloaca, a single body opening that is used for urination, defecation, and reproduction.
Paleontologists believe that dinosaurs may have reproduced by performing a "cloacal kiss" or pressing their cloacas together, but because some birds have penises and crocodiles have intromittent organs that are similar to a penis, male dinosaurs may have had something similar.
Some experts estimate that the length of a tyrannosaur penis was around 12 feet long.
"The most likely position to have intercourse is for the male behind the female, and on top of her, and from behind, any other position is unfathomable," Kristi Curry Rogers, Assistant Professor of Biology and Geology at Macalester College in Minnesota, told the Discovery Channel.
"I don't think there's much doubt about that," Dr. Gregory M. Erickson, an evolutionary biologist at Florida State University, told The Huffington Post, "It must have been a hell of a thing to see."
Other experts are skeptical about the general line of thinking and suggested that dinosaurs might have made love in water because dinosaurs were so big that they would just topple over if they mated on land and would have needed water to provide support.
