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Study finds how large bird species achieve erections

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  • 09-12-2011 3:53pm
    #1
    Mickeroo
    Administrators, Computer Games Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 32,192 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭


    Apparently this has been an unanswered question for quite a while, but a study on ostriches claims to have answered it. Only 3% of bird species have a penis, which is news to me I have to say, and its very different to the penis possessed by mammals and reptiles. Its puzzled scientists for quite a while as to how they achieve and maintain an erection.

    Ostriches and emus are members of the ratites, a group of flightless birds that also includes rheas and kiwis. All male ratites sport penises--as do ducks and some other species--but most birds mate instead with a brief 'cloacal kiss', during which the male passes sperm to the female through the cloaca, the same port used for excreting waste.

    The existence of a lymphatic penis in some birds presents an evolutionary puzzle, says Richard Prum, an ornithologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and co-author of the paper. "What is weird about birds is that they evolved not just a new structure, but a novel way to do something that was already being done," he says.

    It is a poorly explored area of avian anatomy, but speculation about the ratite penis dates back to at least 1836, when a German study suggested that it relied on blood for erection. Only a handful of scientists attempted to follow up on that finding, but a 1923 study claimed that the mechanism was lymphatic.

    To settle the question, Prum and Brennan dissected the genitals of one adult ostrich (Struthio camelus) and three adult emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae). Both species turned out to have spongy, lymph-producing tissue, called paralymphatic bodies, just beneath the muscles that control the phallus. That is convincing evidence that the birds' erections are controlled by the lymph system, the researchers say.


    Click here for the full article.


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    #2
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Mickeroo wrote: »
    Apparently this has been an unanswered question for quite a while, but a study on ostriches claims to have answered it. Only 3% of bird species have a penis, which is news to me I have to say, and its very different to the penis possessed by mammals and reptiles. Its puzzled scientists for quite a while as to how they achieve and maintain an erection.





    Click here for the full article.

    Very interesting, and this now brings the obvious question... did dinosaurs have a penis as well? Seeing as ratites are considered "primitive" birds...

    If they did, I am curious to know how long the penis of an Amphicoelias would be... but maybe that's a subject for the paleontology forum XD


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