Asymmetric and Spiraled Genitalia Coevolve with Unique Lateralized Mating Behavior.

ABSTRACT: Asymmetric genitalia and lateralized mating behaviors occur in several taxa, yet whether asymmetric morphology in one sex correlates or coevolves with lateralized mating behavior in the other sex remains largely unexplored. While lateralized mating behaviors are taxonomically widespread, among mammals they are only known in the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). Males attempt copulation by approaching a female exclusively on her left side. To understand if this unusual lateralized behavior may have coevolved with genital morphology, we quantified the shape of female and male harbor porpoise reproductive tracts using 2D geometric morphometrics and 3D models of the vaginal lumen and inflated distal penis. We found that the vaginas varied individually in shape and that the vaginas demonstra

SUBMITTER: Orbach DN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7039966 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature