Discovering Darwin

We continue our discussion of Lucy Cook's book entitled Bitch: On the female of the species focusing on chapters 5 & 6 which covered variation in female genitalia, the evolution of the human penis,  and maternal care. We spent some time talking about the baculum, a bone that is found in the penis of many mammals, but not in humans. Sarah described how intricately shaped the baculum of squirrels can be, as evident in the image below. From Bacula of North American Mammals by W. H. Burt, 1960Sarah also discussed a novel hypothesis presented by Jakovlic'  that proposes and explanation for the loss of human baculum through male-male aggression. James wondered why human copulation lasts so long? What is the point of all that thrusting for minutes on end?  We explored a couple of hypothesis that have been proposed to explain the exuberant level of pelvic thrusting typical in human copulation. James encouraged our listeners to look at the NSFW artwork of Jamie McCartne