From Sasha Lauer
I was amused by Feedback’s theory, prompted by cinematic depictions of tackle-free dinosaurs, that their extinction resulted from a physical inability to procreate (20 June).
I’m no expert, but modern reptiles generally seem to keep their genitalia and cloacal opening tucked well out of harm’s way – think of the complications for snakes if they didn’t. I don’t see why dinosaurs would have been any different.
If the dinosaur in question lacked even a cloaca, I would have thought that the more pressing problems associated with excretion would have finished the poor thing off well before reproduction came into play.
Lichfield, Staffordshire, UK
