December 10, 2018 10:04 pm

Tuesday, We Explore Dinosaur Sex, with Dustin Growick

Let’s go back to 5^th grade and that weird sex class that we all went through. A painful experience. Now, let’s re-imagine that class but instead of humans we’re focusing on dinosaurs.

On this week’s episode of StarTalk All-Stars dino-nut Dustin Growick is back to host alongside returning comic co-host Meg Pierson and returning paleontologist Shaena Montanari, PhD, as we explore the mysterious, complicated world of dinosaur sex. We try and answer your fan-submitted Cosmic Queries on dino-sex – however, as Dustin says, this topic elicits more questions than answers.

You’ll hear why birds are the best way to help us hypothesize the social behaviors of dinosaurs and their behavior. We discuss if there might have been homosexuality amongst dinosaurs. Find out if there are ways to determine if a dinosaur was male or female. Did dinosaurs partake in mating rituals similar to modern birds today?

Because Dustin, Meg, and Shaena are back together again, it’s only right that we play another round of “Is It A Dinosaur?” If you remember, we played this game on the previous dino-episode, Dinosaurs 101, with Dustin Growick, and Meg did not fare so well. However, it was one of my favorite games that we’ve ever played here on StarTalk All-Stars. For this round, Meg is back again and the results are a bit different this time.

We ponder whether a stegosaurs’ plates were for mating or for something else. As Dustin tells us, any weird feature on a dinosaur is either for mating or flirting. You’ll learn if any dinosaurs were “ovoviviparous.” We discuss the logistics of bringing two very large dinosaurs together for mating. We also explore if dinosaurs could change their sex in order to mate and if any dino-feathers could indicate differences in sex.

Feeling that uncomfortable feeling of Sex Ed class? Fear not. Shaena has the right attitude from the beginning: “I’m stoked to talk about dinosaur sex.”

Please join us tomorrow night for Dinosaur Sex, with Dustin Growick at 7pm ET right here on our website, as well as on our All-Stars channels on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and TuneIn. And if you’re an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free at 7pm, too.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Ian Mullen