Animal Genital Diversity

Uses

How it works

Benefits

Comparisons

Highlighted claims

• Barnacles can have penises many times their own body length, making them proportionally among the largest in nature. — Animal Penises, Evolution, and Human Assumptions
• Duck penises are corkscrew-shaped and emerge ballistically during copulation. — Animal Penises, Evolution, and Human Assumptions
• The duck female reproductive tract includes counter-oriented corkscrew structure and cul-de-sacs that can trap sperm, showing female counter-adaptations to the male penis. — Animal Penises, Evolution, and Human Assumptions
• Some hermaphroditic slugs can chew off a penis when mating partners become stuck, a process called apophallation. — Animal Penises, Evolution, and Human Assumptions
• Some hypodermic penises are needle-like structures that do not target the genital tract but inject sperm through any part of the body wall. — Animal Penises, Evolution, and Human Assumptions
• The male paper nautilus detaches a sperm-loaded arm onto the female and escapes, reducing his risk of being eaten. — Animal Penises, Evolution, and Human Assumptions
• Spiders use pedipalps, which serve both sensory and sperm-transfer functions, for reproduction. — Animal Penises, Evolution, and Human Assumptions
• In several insects and spiders, spermatophores function as nuptial gifts containing nutrition that can support the egg-producing partner. — Animal Penises, Evolution, and Human Assumptions
• A broken-off genital part in some invertebrates can act as a mating plug, blocking subsequent males from mating with the same partner. — Animal Penises, Evolution, and Human Assumptions