Do reptiles have penises? Do birds? Do whales?

Also… do amphibians and/or fish? Or are mammals the only

animal with an actual external organ (obviously the whale is a

mammal, but I still don’t know if they do)?

If not, how do they fertilize the egg?

Thanks,

Sakurako

Everything that is not an invertebrate tends to have a penis. :slight_smile:

Some types of aquatic sea life have developed rather, err, odd systems but. . . . even then they generaly have something that EQUATES to a penis.

Whales have HUUUGE penises.

Can anybody confirm about the invertebrate part? I do believe that it is anything from that stage on, but I am not 100% sure as in exactly what evolutionary stage the shlong came about in.

It was pretty darn early on though. :slight_smile:

The whale penis is in fact called a dork. You learn some interesting stuff from watching National Geographic.

Amphibians generally just cling together and squirt their gametes out into the water, mixing them up in the process, same for fish.

Birds don’t have penises, they just carefully align their cloacal openings.

There are probably numerous exceptions to the above, for example sharks (fish) have a structure that is pretty much like a penis (actually a male shark has two of them).

For an account of how the whalers used to use a hollowed out whale penis as a mackintosh, read Moby Dick

I’m finding it hard to believe I wrote that last sentence.

I’ve seen signs in Hong Kong advertising Snake Penis Oil

Reptiles also have penises, and most have two. They are called hemipenes, are housed internally in males just at the base of the tail, and are everted when needed. But they only use one penis at a time, usually the on the side next to the female, although some individuals seem to have a preference, kinda like being left- or right-handed.

Most insects also have penises, and enjoy penetrative sex. However, other invertebrates vary. Molluscs have penises. But particularly for those dwelling in water, external fertilisation is also common, similar to what occurs in fish and amphibians. And some invertebrates reproduce asexually.

Insects exhibit a particularly wide range of genitals, with many females having multiple openings to receive sperm, some even on their heads. Some insects are even able to play music by rubbing their penises against their bodies: see www.earthlife.net/insects/lepidop2.html

I just found this site for Japan Snake Center http://www.chowchow.gr.jp/inova/sunake/esnake.html
but it is very hard to understand… very poor English translation. It is the only site I could find about snake or reptile or amphibian penises.

Its difficult to search for this on Google and actually get the informaton I need.

So, it seems like mammals are really the only animals with external penises?

I knew a man who had a cane reputedly made from the penis bone of a whale. I’m not sure if it was for real.

I do know that there is an odd set of rules about which mammals have penis bones and which do not; humans, of course, do not. I believe some of the primates share this trait, I’m not sure. This led Eric Von Danniken(sp?) in the 70’s to theorize that humans are aliens living on earth, or that humans are the genetically engineered progeny of aliens, or aliens and primates, whatever. I think it just meant Eric needed to take his damned Depakote.

Anyone with more accurate info on the subject?

b.

Skip, you got a cite for that? The OED says “dork” is a general term for penis, regardless of species, although the references refer exclusively to humans. (Betcha didn’t know they used a line from Portnoy’s Complaint in there.)

I would really like to research the biological rules behind the appearance of a penile bone in mammals, but I’m at work and I just don’t want to search the word “penis” in Google here.

As one might expect the largest animal in the world has the largest penis. The Blue Whale’s penis measures in at 10 feet long and about 1 foot wide.

The Sperm Whale seems to come in second with a 9 foot long penis.

[sub]Trivia Note: The Sperm Whale is so called because early whalers thought all the white gooey stuff in its head was sperm (it isn’t).[/sub]

Actually, some male birds do have a sort-of-penis, called an intromittent organ. Ostriches and some waterfowl. Otherwise, it’s as Mangetout says: birds align their cloaca.

We call it a “cloacal kiss.” :slight_smile:

I recall, hazily, from high school biology that planarians (aquatic flatworms) have penises.

Snakes actually have what are called hemepenes (I’m pretty sure it’s -es rather than -is in this case). They are two separate penises that are tucked up inside the body and can evert either one of them at will.

As snake caretakers may know, male snakes occasionally have an, uh, buildup in this region. Most of the time they can expel this matter by everting the penis, but occasionally the matter requires medical attention.

      • Field Notes: Snakes “do it” by coiling around each other, like a rope. It’s easy to catch two snakes this way (even rattlesnakes), because neither can move well enough to bite or get away if you grab them by the tails, and they won’t stop what they already started just because somebody is grabbing them. - DougC

We have a ulu from Alaska - the handle is made from a petrified walrus penis bone.

Apparently barnacles have the largest penis in proportion to their body size.

some birds have penises.

and HOW!

Do any animals lay eggs…
and then later, the male fertilizes them
after they are already far outside the female’s body?

Also, do whales and snakes have to put their penis inside the
female animal… or is it more like birds… just aligning their body
parts?