{"id":5905,"date":"2017-11-15T10:48:03","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T15:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/?p=5905"},"modified":"2017-11-15T10:48:03","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T15:48:03","slug":"simulated-copulation-techniques-reveal-cetacean-sex-secrets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/simulated-copulation-techniques-reveal-cetacean-sex-secrets\/","title":{"rendered":"Simulated copulation techniques reveal cetacean sex secrets  <img src=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/canada_flag_icon_small.gif\">"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new study helps examine how mechanical interactions during copulation influence the shape of genitalia and fertility in cetaceans. Researchers used samples of cetacean genitalia acquired after the animals&#8217; natural cause death. The scientists inflated excised penises using a saline solution to simulate an erection, and studied its interaction with silicone endocasts of vaginas in dice contrast-enhanced CT scans during simulated copulation. Observations obtained during simulated intercourse suggest both congruent and antagonistic genital coevolution in cetaceans, depending on the species.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Authors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dara N. Orbach, Diane A. Kelly, Mauricio Solano, Patricia L. R. Brennan<\/p>\n<p><strong>Corresponding author:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dara Orbach, Department of Biology, Life Science Centre, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Email:\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:dnorbach@gmail.com\">dnorbach@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org\/content\/284\/1864\/20171265\" target=\"_blank\">Original paper<\/a> published in <em>Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences<\/em> on October 11, 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study helps examine how mechanical interactions during copulation influence the shape of genitalia and fertility in cetaceans. Researchers used samples of cetacean genitalia acquired after the animals&#8217; natural cause death. The scientists inflated excised penises using a saline solution to simulate an erection, and studied its interaction with silicone endocasts of vaginas in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[3199,3200,917,1289],"class_list":["post-5905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paper-of-interest","tag-cetacean","tag-dolphins","tag-evolution","tag-fertility"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/killer-whales.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4DqbN-1xf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5906,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905\/revisions\/5906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}