The Mystery Of The Missing Penis

MinuteEarth

Become smarter in 5 minutes by signing up for free today: http://cen.yt/mbminuteearth - Thanks to Morning Brew for sponsoring today’s video. Because there are so many different types of penises among our evolutionary relatives, we didn’t know until a recent discovery whether they all had the same origin. LEARN MORE ************** To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords: - Amniote: Vertebrates whose embryos are enclosed in a thin sac. - Cloaca: A posterior orifice used for excretion and reproduction. - Cloacal Kiss: A method that penisless amniotes use to mate, which involves males and females momentarily pressing their cloacae together. - Tuatara: Reptiles endemic to New Zealand that are the only surviving members of their ancient amniote group. - Hemipenis: One of the paired copulatory organs of lizards and snakes. - Bmp4: A protein that, when present, stifles the growth of penises in chick embryos. - Convergent Evolution: The independent evolution of similar features in different species. SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH ************************** If you like what we do, you can help us!: - Become our patron: https://patreon.com/MinuteEarth - Share this video with your friends and family - Leave us a comment (we read them!) CREDITS ********* Emily Willingham | Script Writer David Goldenberg | Script Editor & Narrator Adam Thompson | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation Ever Salazar | Director Nathaniel Schroeder | Music MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC https://neptunestudios.info OUR STAFF ************ Sarah Berman • Arcadi Garcia i Rius David Goldenberg • Julián Gustavo Gómez Melissa Hayes • Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida OUR LINKS ************ Youtube | https://youtube.com/MinuteEarth TikTok | https://tiktok.com/@minuteearth Twitter | https://twitter.com/MinuteEarth Instagram | https://instagram.com/minute_earth Facebook | https://facebook.com/Minuteearth Website | https://minuteearth.com Apple Podcasts| https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/minuteearth/id649211176 REFERENCES ************** Ortiz-Ospina, E. (2017). “Life Expectancy” – What does this actually mean?. Our World In Data. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy-how-is-it-calculated-and-how-should-it-be-interpreted. Dendy, Arthur. 1899. “Memoirs: Outlines of the Development of the Tuatara, Sphenodon (Hatteria) punctatus.” Journal of Cell Science s2-42: 1–87. Cree, Alison. 2014. Tuatara: Biology and Conservation of a Venerable Survivor. Christchurch, New Zealand: Canterbury University Press. Gans, Carl, James C. Gillingham, and David Lang Clark. 1984. “Courtship, Mating and Male Combat in Tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus.” Journal of Herpetology 18 (2): 194–97. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.2307/1563749. Sanger, Thomas J., Marissa L. Gredler, and Martin J. Cohn. 2015. “Resurrecting Embryos of the Tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus, to Resolve Vertebrate Phallus Evolution.” Biology Letters 11 (10): pii: 20150694. REtreieved from: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0694. Herrera, Ana María, Simone G. Shuster, Claire L. Perriton, and Martin J. Cohn. 2013. “Developmental Basis of Phallus Reduction During Bird Evolution.” Current Biology 23 (12): 1065–74. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.062. Brennan, Patricia L. R. 2016a. “Evolution: One Penis After All.” Current Biology 26: R29–R31. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.11.024. Willingham, Emily. 2020. Fallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis. Avery. Retrieved from: https://www.amazon.com/Phallacy-Life-Lessons-Animal-Penis/dp/0593087178