The Dino Butt Fossil | Tumble Episode
- tumblepodcast
- Oct 17
- 2 min read
Ever wondered if dinosaurs sniffed each other’s butts like dogs? In our latest episode, The Dino Butt Fossil, we dig into one of the strangest and funniest fossil discoveries ever made—one that helps scientists understand how dinosaurs communicated, smelled, and even pooped!
🎧 Listen to the Episode
🦕 What Kids Will Learn
How scientists studied a rare fossilized dinosaur butt.
How comparing it to modern animals helps reveal dinosaur behavior.
How scientists use evidence to make discoveries about the past.
About The Featured Scientist
Diane Kelly is a biologist at UMass Amherst who studies how animal reproductive systems work and evolve. She was part of the team that described the first known dinosaur butt and compares fossil anatomy to living animals to learn how they behaved. Diane is also a science communicator who’s written for FiveThirtyEight, Wired, and Gizmodo, co-designed science-themed games, and fact-checks for Science Vs and Radiolab.
🧑🏫 Classroom & Home Resources
📄 Transcript: Download here
🔗 NGSS Alignment: 3-LS4-1, 3-LS3-2
📚 Learn More:
National Geographic Kids - Dinosaurs Facts — Fun, fact-packed pages about how scientists study dinosaur fossils and what we know about their lives.
American Museum of Natural History - What Are Fossils?— A short explainer of how fossils form and what they can teach us.
Psittacosaurus Wikipedia Page - Learn all about the basics of this dinosaur!
✨ Try It Yourself: Go on a fossil detective mission! Find a picture of a modern animal skeleton—like a bird, lizard, or turtle—and compare it to a dinosaur fossil online. What similarities can you spot? What clues might those bones give you about how the animal moved or behaved?
💬 Discussion Questions
Why do you think scientists compare fossils to animals that are alive today?
What can a single fossil--like the psittacosaurus butt fossil--tell us about how dinosaurs lived or behaved?
If you discovered a strange fossil, what clues would you look for to figure out what it was?
🎧 More Episodes About Dinosaurs:
📚 For Teachers: Explore our Audio Courses for NGSS-aligned science learning.
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