Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Editorial
. 2023 Jun 14:12:e89158.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.89158.

Sexual dimorphism in dinosaurs

Affiliations
Editorial

Sexual dimorphism in dinosaurs

Stella A Ludwig et al. Elife. .

Abstract

Studying fossils from a mass-mortality event reveals evidence for sexual dimorphism and, unusually, equal numbers of males and females in a herd of dinosaurs.

Keywords: 3D geometric morphometrics; dinosaurs; evolutionary biology; intraspecific variability; limb bones; palaeontology; sexual dimorphism.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

SL, RS, NI No competing interests declared

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Sexual dimorphism in ornithomimosaurs.
(A–B) Pintore et al. identified subtle differences in the curvature and shape of the femur in fossils of ornithomimosaurs from the Angeac-Charente fossil site in France. Further work is needed to determine the sex corresponding to each type of femur. (C) Skeletal outline of an ornithomimosaur based upon Struthiomimus from Longrich, 2008; fig. 2, with the femur highlighted in red.

Comment on

  • doi: 10.7554/eLife.83413

References

    1. Barden HE, Maidment SCR. Evidence for sexual dimorphism in the stegosaurian dinosaur Kentrosaurus aethiopicus from the Upper Jurassic of Tanzania. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 2011;31:641–651. doi: 10.1080/02724634.2011.557112. - DOI
    1. Chapman RE, Weishampel DB, Hunt G, Rasskin-Gutman D. Sexual dimorphism in dinosaurs. Dinofest International. 1997;1:83–93.
    1. González EJ, Martínez-López M, Morales-Garduza MA, García-Morales R, Charruau P, Gallardo-Cruz JA. The sex-determination pattern in crocodilians: a systematic review of three decades of research. The Journal of Animal Ecology. 2019;88:1417–1427. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.13037. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Grellet-Tinner G, Chiappe L, Norell M, Bottjer D. Dinosaur eggs and nesting behaviors: a paleobiological investigation. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 2006;232:294–321. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2005.10.029. - DOI
    1. Longrich N. A new, large ornithomimid from the Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta, Canada: implications for the study of dissociated dinosaur remains. Palaeontology. 2008;51:983–997. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00791.x. - DOI

Publication types