# Is there any mammal species in which the males breastfeed the young?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-mammal-species-in-which-the-males-breastfeed-the-young/591105>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [August 1, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-mammal-species-in-which-the-males-breastfeed-the-young/591105 "2011-08-01T23:01:33Z")\
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**Author:** ![blacktieman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dc4da7/32.png) [@blacktieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blacktieman)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-mammal-species-in-which-the-males-breastfeed-the-young/591105/1 "2011-08-01T23:01:33Z")

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This question and answer naturally reminded me of a fine Stephen Jay Gould essay that expands on the same topic, as well as some similar ideas. Called “Male Nipples and Clitoral Ripples,” it explains that Gould often gets the same question: Why do men have nipples? People go to great lengths to figure out the evolutionary advantage. The answer is that evolution is more complex than that. Indeed, men get no advantage from nipples. However, men and women are cut from the same cloth. Just as the clitoris and penis develop from the same tissue, male nipples are a developmental artifact of the same tissue that leads to female nipples (whose value has never been doubted.)

Here’s the essay in full:

> **[Bully for Brontosaurus](https://books.google.com/books?id=pzj90slTTEIC&pg=PA124#v=onepage&q&f=false)**
>
> "Provocative and delightfully discursive essays on natural history. . . . Gould is the Stan Musial of essay writing. He can work himself into a corkscrew of ideas and improbable allusions paragraph after paragraph and then, uncoiling, hit it with...

_ETA: Link to Column: [Why do men have nipples? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/85/why-do-men-have-nipples)_