There are dolphins that are spiral and full of trapdoors. The ring-tailed lemur has disappeared and there are three possums.
Welcome to the wild, strange and terribly ignored animal vaginal world.
There are vagina that do not resemble the vagina, such as the pseudo-penis of a spider monkey and the 8-inch clitoris tube that hyenas pee, mate, and give birth to.
"Biologists love penises," Rachel Gross wrote in"Vagina Obscura"(Norton). "They are easy to study. The penis is like hanging out."
This field suffers from the long-standing belief that the vagina is just a passive saucer. This is a prejudice that generally extends to female animals. Gross calls this "vaginal neglect". Patricia Brennan, a professor of biology at Mount Hollioke, who has been studying the vagina for nearly 20 years, calls it the "mating black box."
2014 study "Reproductive evolution: why women are still studied 49% of the papers published in the last 25 years studied only the male genitals, while 8% of the papers focused only on female anatomy. "We argue that understanding the evolution of the genitals is hampered by outdated gender prejudice," the paper reads.
However, over the last decade, research on the reproductive organs of animals has been reviewed because long-standing beliefs cannot withstand scrutiny.
The vagina is finally spending the day in the sun. In particular, a new book by Lucy Cook"Bitch: About Women of the Species"(Basic Books) has been published.
"In nature, the shape and role of women is a fascinating spectrum. "Anatomy and Behavior," writes Cook, a writer, television personality, zoologist, and self-proclaimed explorer. This new understanding of female anatomy "redefines not only the female species, but the very power that shapes evolution."
Evolutionary biology grandfather Charles Darwin wrote that "genitals have nothing to do with us" and avoided this topic for the most part. Female animals were then considered a less evolved male version — smaller, more immature, and less aggressive. As Darwin explained, women upheld the Victorian standards of the era: "shy women." Textbooks on animal behavior are about "reluctant women and enthusiastic men."
With increasing evidence of opposition, Colombian biologist Patricia Brennan began studying the vagina.
She started with mallards. After she found a spiral-like insect-like penis in a blue-gray bird called the Costa Rican tinamou (if 97% of the birds had no external genitalia), she turned her attention to the ducks. She was about to fall out of her chair when she discovered achicken bottle opener-shaped cock and the accompanying disturbing sexual activity. It wondered her — what did the corresponding vagina look like?
She found them as elaborate as they were filled with Byzantine crevices and blind alleys. During normal mating, the female anatomy functions counterclockwise with respect to the male anatomy. When mating is forced (as is often the case), the elaborate anatomy of female ducks protects them with tooth-like cavities.
Brennan's duck work "transformed the scientific thinking of and rehabilitated a woman from a passive victim to an active agent of her own evolutionary destiny." Cook writes.
But duck sex was just a "gateway drug". Followed by other animals, including dolphins, with surprisingly similar spiral genitals. "Convergent evolution with ducks," Brennan told Cook. "It's nuts."
Like a duck, Female dolphins can move their bodies and force their penis into blind alleys. "Whether males are more powerful, numerous, or more powerful, females have evolved creative ways to control egg insemination," Cook wrote.
Genital battles often have a wide range of influences on evolution. For example, as a male mosquitofish evolves a longer genital organ, the female brain actually grows "to outperform the attacker."
Finally, Brennan set a new goal of editing the world's first physical library of animal vagina.
"Understanding the evolution of the genitals is hampered by outdated gender prejudice.'
Concerning the tendency of male distortion in animal studies
"Vaginal so many vagina, such a short lifespan, Brennan told Cook, as research, or as some biologists call it" vaginal neglect. "
Her research revealed how adaptable the organs were. For example, the female vaginal shark's private reshapes and is more asymmetric to accommodate puppies during pregnancy. But nothing is more remarkable than Opossum, who has a surprising vagina that disappears "like a secret door" after giving birth. Opossum has two uteri, two ovaries, and two other vagina.
There is a female mole with a "ball" called the ovotestis, which is composed of both ovarian and testicular tissue. The ovaries produce eggs and the testes produce testosterone, but not sperm, which enhances the aggression and weight of the mole. These parts of the body contract and expand depending on need and breeding season.
Next, there are all fake cocks. Fossa in Madagascar, which Cook describes as a "shrinking puma," actually grows "inner bones" to make them look like a male penis, exuding a yellow liquid underneath. When the fossa is old enough to mate, the pretending penis disappears. Researchers believe it has evolved to "protect them from unwanted attention from older men and women in the territory."
Ring-tailed lemurs also have a pseudoscrotum and an expanded clitoris that is similar to the penis of a ring-tailed lemur. They could "write their name in the snow" if they wanted, a lemuriformes researcher joked.
Cook writes that the genitals evolve faster than any other body part, and Brennan and other researchers say that women actually play a greater role in the natural selection of the genitals than men. Well, before which, male-centered researchers could have imagined it.
Another interesting discovery of Brennan is the dolphin's "giant clitoris". "is. It has erectile tissue and blood vessels and is shaped like a human clitoris.
Researchers have long witnessed dolphin sexual activity outside of mating. For example, rubbing the clitoris against other dolphin noses and objects on the ocean floor, but no one took an extra step to study the function of the clitoris.
Brennan and his colleagues dissected a sample of the dolphin's clitoris and found a network of nerve endings and spongy tissue that allowed swelling in an area that was easily accessible to the outside. Interestingly, dolphins are not the only animals with clitoris — all mammals have clitoris.
Everyone knows about penis fencing bonobo male monkeys, What about giant monkeys? Bonobo female "melon-sized" clitoris. Some bonobo researchers believe that the clitoris "promotes mutual stimulation with other women" while facing forward like a human. Bonobos genital rubs with other women and often chooses this behavior over sex with men.
These animals engage in sexual activity outside the need to have a baby. Therefore, gender "serves a richer and more complex purpose, not just the transfer of sperm from one party to another. As part of social negotiations, it strengthens friendship and alliance, and gestures of domination and obedience. Can be used to do, "writes Rachel Gross, author of" Vagina Obscura. "
For decades, the gender of unmated females has been dismissed as anomalous along with female aggression. Many researchers "looked differently when they met a benevolent woman." In reality, only 7% of species are sexually monogamous.
Female lions mate with multiple male suitors up to 100 times a day in the heat. Chimpanzees border on "hypersexuality, especially during ovulation." Animals such as orangutans and marmosets have sex throughout the cycle when they are unlikely to become pregnant.
Antelopes are a good example of how bias has clouded research. When Darwin noticed the powerful horns of a woman, he dismissed it as a "waste of vitality."
Boy, he was wrong. Women are not only violent, they are also sexual invaders. During the short birth period, "it's not uncommon to see women collapse from fatigue because women are so demanding," Cook wrote.
Women may even charge a "top stud" to authorize it for a limited sperm reserve and stop the act of mating with another woman.As a result, men assume the "traditional selective role of women to protect precious sperm."
"Women are not destined to be passive and shy. Evolutionary retrofits are just waiting to be dominated by men," Cook wrote. By learning about the big differences between women's shapes and functions, we "empower the infinite possibilities of women's experiences."