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Scott Pitnick claims his research is "generally interested in the variety of ways in which members of the same sex compete for fertilizations and in which males and females cooperate with / attempt to manipulate one another in order to maximize their own fitness". But I know what it is really about: balls… and bats too (sorry could not resist the obvious)

Pitnick measured bat nuts (there was sufficient data published so his team did not have to ventures in dark caverns with Calipers to cop-a-feel) seeking to answer two questions; does promiscuity in the female of the species affect the size of testicles in males of the same species and what impact does this have on brain size?

Amongst the monogamous African yellow-winged bat the testicles were about 0.11% of body weight, whilst the very licentious Rafinesque Big-Eared bat bears a reproductive burden that is 8.4% of its body weight.

You can find read more about bat balls at Livescience (they also have an explicit image of bat genital), NewsScientist.com or read the Economist’s cheeky reporting

This entry was posted on Monday, December 19th, 2005 at 7:36 pm and is filed under Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.