Comments on: Wildlife Porn

Question: Wildlife Porn

goalyeehah — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 19:52:15 -0800

Is there a species (mammal, reptile, amphibian, etc.) that has two functioning sexual organs?

Some one here at the party insists that there is a species in which both male and female has two of each (specifically two penis' for the male and two vaginas for the male. I personally would like to settle this topic before the presents are opened and before too much champagne is imbibed. It could get ugly here. Googling this isn't working.

By: baklavabaklava

baklavabaklava — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 19:56:50 -0800

Apparently a "businessman in India" had two working penises.

By: goalyeehah

goalyeehah — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 19:58:37 -0800

Yes, he has been the topic of the conversation.

By: SuperNova

SuperNova — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 20:08:18 -0800

Marsupials have two vaginas (well, the females do). Males have a "forked" penis -- which I guess technically just counts as one, for some reason.

By: Listener

Listener — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 20:10:49 -0800

Beat me to it. I found the marsupials

by googling "multiple sex organs" but not before I added -frogs because most of the articles were on frogs exposed to atrazine

By: biscotti

biscotti — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 20:14:04 -0800

Slugs are hermaphroditic, but I don't know of anything that has TWO of each organ.

By: caution live frogs

caution live frogs — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 20:38:33 -0800

Reptiles have two hemipenes.

By: paulsc

paulsc — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 20:46:41 -0800

Back in September, a woman in London delivered 3 babies from her 2 wombs. (Twin girls from one womb, and a sister to them from her other womb.) The children spent the intervening 9 weeks in neo-natal care, but the story was all over the news a couple of days ago, when the babies came home, healthy.

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 21:21:12 -0800

Slightly different: slugs are bisexual. Each slug has both a male and a female organ. When they copulate, each fertilizes the other (simultaneously), and afterwards they both lay eggs.

By: borkencode

borkencode — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 21:48:43 -0800

Male sharks have two claspers

By: smallerdemon

smallerdemon — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 22:50:48 -0800

Earwigs have an extra penis. Immediately functional if the other one snaps off. OH, and, uh, ow. Oh, also their penises are as long as their bodies. (I only know this because I was recently watching back episodes of QI.

By: wiggles

wiggles — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 02:03:13 -0800

And maybe even more different: Komodo Dragons supposedly can have "virgin" births.

By: squidlarkin

squidlarkin — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 03:05:53 -0800

Pedantic point: slugs are hermaphroditic, not bisexual. I'm bisexual, and I'm pretty sure none of what Steven said applies to me.

By: Atreides

Atreides — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 06:20:19 -0800

Not just komodo dragons, but several lizard species have the ability of a female fertilizing her own eggs in the absence of a male.

By: Gungho

Gungho — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 06:45:24 -0800

squidlarkin, How do you know slugs are not hermaphroditic AND bisexual?

By: plinth

plinth — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 08:44:11 -0800

Earthworms and snails are also hermaphroditic. Although I don't know for slugs and snails, earthworms still need a partner for reproduction, even though both sets of parts are functional.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 12:01:24 -0800

Pedantic point: slugs are hermaphroditic, not bisexual.

Well, since the question has been answered, here's an even more pedantic point: "bisexual" is used in a lot of different ways in biology, including as a synonym for hermaphrodite, particularly in botany, where "bisexual flowers" are frequently discussed. But it's also used to define species that have two sexes, male and female, as in "humans are a bisexual species." Generally, though, hermaphrodite is the word for animals with both male and female reproductive organs, and bisexual should probably be reserved for other uses.

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 14:03:33 -0800

bisexual:

3. Biology. an animal or plant that has the reproductive organs of both sexes.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 15:00:10 -0800

Right, Steven, we already covered that. But it's a confusing usage, and hermaphrodite really is the better term when talking about animals instead of plants, particularly given the multiple meanings of bisexual among the various animal/human sciences.

By: Plutor

Plutor — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 05:38:02 -0800

mediareport: "...particularly in botany, where "bisexual flowers" are frequently discussed."

The case that I think is more interesting (and actually sort of applicable to this question) are monoecious plants, for example zucchini. Each flower can only be male or female (never both on the same flower), but a single plant can (and almost always does) have both male and female flowers on it. The last time I grew zucchinis, I had problems getting any fruit until I pulled off the male flowers and.. er.. manually induced fertilization.