Here are eight penises that are as cool and surprising as the creatures that wield them: Heads Above the RestĮchidnas have a four-headed penis, though only two heads are put to use at a time. These blurred lines often give rise to nature's most fascinating sexual organs. “There's not a binary that is categorically one thing or the other when it comes to genitalia,” says Willingham. Many of the creatures packing the most surprising phalluses are hermaphrodites, meaning they also have female reproductive organs. Gender and sex rarely fit into tidy categories and animal penises are no different. Typically, a penis helps male animals reproduce sexually with a female-however, exceptions exist. One explanation for this research gap, says Willingham, is “because of who has been asking the questions until quite recently, and who's been deciding how those questions should be answered.” Penises have been a longstanding subject of scientific fascination, and they’re far more studied than vaginas. Phallacy plunges readers into the wild and wacky world of animal genitalia while exploring the social and cultural significance of penises as symbols of power and identity. Her book, Phallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis, hit shelves in September. Just ask Emily Willingham, a biologist and journalist who’s been studying penises for over a decade. The more scientists learn about penises, the more they realize how varied sex organs are. Across vastly different species and ecosystems, unique environmental pressures have allowed creatures of many species to evolve an array of shapes and sizes-from the electric blue penis of the leopard slug to the blue whale’s ten-foot phallus. Birds have them, bees have them, even regular old fleas have them, but in the animal kingdom, no penis is exactly like the next.
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