Baculum length and copulatory behavior in primates

Abstract

The length of the baculum (os penis) was measured in 74 adult males representing 46 primate species. These data, and a review of previously published measurements, indicate that variation in baculum length among primates is related to taxonomic and behavioral differences. Thus, many New World monkeys have shorter bacula, relative to body weight, than Old World monkeys. The baculum is shorter in colobine monkeys than in cercopithecines. Among the great apes, reduction of the baculum is more pronounced in Pan and Gorilla than in Pongo. Very long bacula are found in some nocturnal prosimians (eg, Lorisidae) and also in Macaca arctoides. A comparison of baculum length relative to body weight was made in 34 species for which detailed information on copulatory behavi or was available. The presence of an elongated baculum was shown to correlate with copulatory patterns involving prolonged intromission and/or the maintenance of intromission during the postejaculatory interval (eg, Galago crassicaudatus, Loris tardigradus, M, arctoides). The evolutionary significance of these observations is discussed and it is suggeted that similar copulatory patterns may occur in species with elongated bacula (eg, Daubentonia, Perodicticus) for which behavioral data are lacking at present. The same hypothesis also applies to an extinct adapid primate which possessed a very large baculum.

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