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Wednesday, January 25, 2006

No free lunches when it comes to bat sex

Posted by on January 25 at 10:56 AM

Here’s a fun AP story the Seattle PI ran today:

A research team led by Syracuse University biologist Scott Pitnick found that in bat species where the females are promiscuous, the males boasting the largest testicles also had the smallest brains. Conversely, where the females were faithful, the males had smaller testes and larger brains.

“Bats invest an enormous amount in testis, and the investment has to come from somewhere. There are no free lunches,” said David Hoskens [a biologist at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter in England and a leading authority on bats’ mating behavior.]

The study found that in more monogamous species, the average male brain size was about 2.6 percent of body weight, while in promiscuous species, the average size dipped to 1.9 percent.

Which begs the question: Are humans considered a monogamous species? And may I get brains with my testicles?


CommentsRSS icon

I wish I was a leading authority on bats' mating behavior.

How, then, pray tell, does one explain Bruce Wayne, let alone Robin?

I'm not sure. But it does explain the Julie Brown song: I like them Big and Stupid.

a biologist whose name escapes me (i remember that her last name is primarily made up of vowels) wrote on this topic. Apparently in apes, human ball size is in the middle between chimpanzees (big balls) and gorillas (small balls). A silver back gorila will make sure that no one else is having sex with the lady gorillas in his group. Chimps and people.....

a biologist whose name escapes me (i remember that her last name is primarily made up of vowels) wrote on this topic. Apparently in apes, human ball size is in the middle between chimpanzees (big balls) and gorillas (small balls). A silver back gorila will make sure that no one else is having sex with the lady gorillas in his group. Chimps and people.....

sorry about the double post

I recently read an article for a primate evolution class on this, weirdly enough. In species where the males have to compete with lots of other males for sex, they tend to have bigger penises and testicels and produce a lot more ejaculate. Human size and amount means that we're biologically suited to have 2 or 3 partners at one time.

Makes those poly people among us pretty smart, eh?

It doesn't 'beg the question': it RAISES the question. Begging the question is assuming the conclusion of an assertion. needless to say, this rant regarding logic and usage indicates that my brain is bigger than my balls.

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