Bacular variation and allometry in the western martenMartes caurina

Miller, Edward H.; Nagorsen, David W.

doi:10.1007/bf03194246

Cited by 19 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…However, recent studies on mammals (MILLER et al 1998; OOSTHUIZEN & MILLER A. W. MALECHA et al 2000;MILLER & BURTON 2001;MILLER & NAGORSEN 2008) revealed higher size variability in bacula than in other skeletal elements. These findings can be attributed to less functional constraint for the baculum than for limb bones or mandibles (MILLER & BURTON 2001).…”

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confidence: 97%

“…Also several interspecific studies proposed that sexual selection is a force behind the evolution of penile/bacular size and shape (HOSKEN et al 2001;LARIVIÉRE & FERGUSON 2002;LÜPOLD et al 2004). MILLER & BURTON (2001) and MILLER & NAGORSEN (2008) suggested that positive allometry and high variation of bacula imply that the size of the os penis is an indicator of male quality. However, we have found that the most variable trait is not baculum length, often used in comparative analyses (HOSKEN et al 2001;RAMM 2007), but baculum width, which was not even taken into account when the shape of the baculum was described (e.g.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Morphological variability of baculum (os penis) in the polecat Mustela putorius

Malecha¹,

Krawczyk²,

Hromada³

2009

Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia - Series A: Vertebrata

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MALECHA A. W., KRAWCZYK A. J., HROMADA M. 2009. Morphological variability of baculum (os penis) in the polecat Mustela putorius. Acta zoologica cracoviensia, # )(1-2): 115-120. Abstract. The study presents the morphological variation in three traits of the baculum (os penis) in the polecat (Mustela putorius Linnaeus, 1758), based on an analysis of 108 males (7 juveniles and 101 adults) collected in NE Slovakia between 1958-1978. Adult individuals had a significantly larger baculum (length, width and distal tip size) than juveniles. All three measured baculum traits correlated significantly with each other. However, these relationships only explained from 10% (width distal tip size relationship) up to 51% (length width relationship) of the variance between the studied traits. Therefore, evolutionary analysis based on baculum variation should take into account not only baculum size, but also base width, which may be a measure of baculum developmental stage. Moreover, coefficients of variation were 10.2%, 30.2% and 11.4%, respectively for length, width and distal tip size of the baculum, much greater than the known variation of cranial measurements. Therefore, more data on the variability among individuals, as well as between measured traits, are needed for a better understanding of the evolutionary processes which influence baculum size and shape.

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confidence: 97%

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confidence: 99%

Morphological variability of baculum (os penis) in the polecat Mustela putorius

Malecha¹,

Krawczyk²,

Hromada³

2009

Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia - Series A: Vertebrata

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“…Therefore, baculum may play a role as indicator for a good physical condition of the male (Lariviére & Ferguson 2002). It is very significant, because bacular size is strongly correlated with body size, so could be informative about a male's absolute or relative size during copulation (Miller & Nagorsen 2008). Moreover, several authors (e. Lüpold et al 2004, Kinahan et al 2008, Krawczyk et al 2011 showed that the largest and heaviest males were favoured by sexual selection as breeders.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The baculum is a heterotopic bone in the penis that occurs in males of all species of Carnivora, including the Mustelidae (Abramov 2002, Baryshnikov et al 2003, Miller & Nagorsen 2008, Krawczyk et al 2011, Schulte-Hostedde et al 2011, Vercillo & Ragni 2011. Morphology of the mustelid baculum has been described in several studies (Burt 1960, van Soest & van Bree 1970, King & Moody 1982, Grue & King 1984, Barysh nikov & Abramov 1997, Abramov & Baryshnikov 2000, Baryshnikov et al 2003, Elsasser & Parker 2008, Ruette et al 2015, Čanády & Onderková 2016a, which show that this bone tends to be rather simple in structure but with some more complex projections at the tip.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Morphological variation and allometry of the baculum in stoats, Mustela erminea (Carnivora, Mustelidae) from Western Carpathians

Csanády¹,

Onderková²

2018

Acta Zool Acad Sci H

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In this study we investigated allometry and variation in the baculum of the stoat Mustela erminea and compared it with head-and-body length not involved in reproduction. The stoat is a species with pre-copulatory selection (manifested by the high degree of malebiased sexual size dimorphism) therefore we predicted that baculum allometry may be isometric or exhibited negative allometry. We also test the hypothesis that the baculum size is positively correlated with adult body size and may be used as a reliable indicator of male good condition. Results presented in this study were different according to which regression model type was used. While the OLS slope for baculum length in M. erminea indicated negative allometry, the RMA model showed positive allometry. The results obtained for M. erminea weren't in agreement with mentioned hypothesis that if baculum allometry is affected by the degree of pre-copulatory selection relative to post-copulatory selection, then we predict isometry or negative allometry of the baculum. Nevertheless, we suggest, that to confirm the above statements further analysis of more numerous material of M. erminea coupled with comparative analysis of testicular growth studies are needed to fully understand the importance and function of the baculum relative to the mating system.

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Baculum shape complexity correlates to metrics of post‐copulatory sexual selection in Musteloidea

Clear

Grant

Gardiner

et al. 2023

Journal of Morphology

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The penis bone, or baculum, is present in many orders of mammals, although its function is still relatively unknown, mainly due to the challenges with studying the baculum in vivo. Suggested functions include increasing vaginal friction, prolonging intromission and inducing ovulation. Since it is difficult to study baculum function directly, functional morphology can give important insights. Shape complexity techniques, in particular, are likely to offer a useful metric of baculum morphology, especially since finding homologous landmarks on such a structure is challenging.This study focuses on measuring baculum shape complexity in the Musteloidea-a large superfamily spanning a range of body sizes with well-developed, qualitatively diverse bacula. We compared two shape complexity metrics-alpha shapes and ariaDNE and conducted analyses over a range of six different coefficients, or bandwidths, in 32 species of Musteloidea. Overall, we found that shape complexity, especially at the baculum distal tip, is associated with intromission duration using both metrics. These complexities can include hooks, bifurcations and other additional projections. In addition, alpha shapes complexity was also associated with relative testes mass. These results suggest that post-copulatory mechanisms of sexual selection are probably driving the evolution of more complex-shaped bacula tips in Musteloidea and are likely to be especially involved in increasing intromission duration during copulation.

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Bacular variation and allometry in the western martenMartes caurina

Cited by 19 publications

References 85 publications

Morphological variability of baculum (os penis) in the polecat Mustela putorius

Morphological variability of baculum (os penis) in the polecat Mustela putorius

Morphological variation and allometry of the baculum in stoats, Mustela erminea (Carnivora, Mustelidae) from Western Carpathians

Baculum shape complexity correlates to metrics of post‐copulatory sexual selection in Musteloidea

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