This brings us back to the ducks. Male ducks force copulations on females, and males and females are engaged in a genital arms race with surprising consequences.
Male ducks have elaborate corkscrew-shaped penises, the length of which correlates with the degree of forced copulation males impose on female ducks. Females are often unable to escape male coercion, but they have evolved vaginal morphology that makes it difficult for males to inseminate females close to the sites of fertilization and sperm storage.
Males have counterclockwise spiraling penises, while females have clockwise spiraling vaginas and blind pockets that prevent full eversion of the male penis.
Our latest study examined how the presence of other males influences genital morphology.
My colleagues and I found that it does so to an amazing degree, demonstrating that male competition is a driving force behind these male traits that can be harmful to females.
More information than I needed to know.
Can’t see spending my money on it but I’m sure someone
somewhere would find it worth while.
Of course if you’re spending other peoples money.....
The commentary and headlines in some of the recent articles reflect outrage that the study was about duck genitals, as if there is something inherently wrong or perverse with this line of research. Imagine if medical research drew the line at the belt! “Genitalia, dear readers, are where the rubber meets the road, evolutionarily.”
I guess that is what Sandra Fluke is all about...
“To fully understand why some individuals are more successful than others during reproduction, there may be no better place to look..... Generating new knowledge of what factors affect genital morphology in ducks, one of the few vertebrate species other than humans that form pair bonds and exhibit violent sexual coercion
This is the money quote from someone writing to Slate wearing a NY Times windbreaker. “violent sexual coercion”. See, in these minds, all sex is rape.
“Brennan has a doctorate in behavioral ecology from New York’s Cornell University. She began her studies of avian genitalia at Yale University and Sheffield University in the United Kingdom. She is currently a research professor in the department of biology at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where she continues her research on the evolutionary consequences of sexual conflict.”
Sexual conflict? It never ends with these people.