[hsmomx3]

I wonder if (how do I say this) one works at the moment (if you know what I mean) and the other one kicks in and ........

Now I am in BIG trouble.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

I'll admit I had the same thought.

(I don't know if nature prevents that from occurring, since I didn't know this fact about iguanas 'til today.)

[WFTR]

I'm in the process of learning some reptile anatomy because I'm hoping to breed pythons within the next few years. As someone has already stated, most reptiles have two organs which are called hemipenes. They don't work together or consecutively as far as I know. I suspect that they have two for the reason that this article describes. In the wild, one likely becomes damaged occasionally, and a second allows the animal to continue breeding. Another interesting point with snakes is that the sperm travels in grooves on the outside of the hemipene. When the snakes aren't breeding, the hemipenes withdraw into a snake's body in an "inside-out" manner. When the snake is ready to breed, the male will evert one hemipene and insert it into the female. He'll secrete along the outside of the hemipene so that the sperm travels along the hemipene into the female. What might have happened to this iguana is that the muscle that pulls the hemipene back into his body has become damaged. I suspect that the writer of this article has taken quite a bit of poetic license with his description of this poor guy's problem.

Bill