Re: Dinosaur "baculae" (fwd)

[pwillis@ozemail.com.au (Paul Willis)]

>     Here is one of the previous postings on dinosaur intromittant organs.
>
>>     Are croc dongers and duck dicks true penises or hemipenes?  What would
>>a hypothetical dino dinkie be?  What exactly is the difference between a
>>penis and a hemipene?
>
>Actually I believe they are neither.  The general term for all such
>structures is "intromittent organ".  A true (ie mammalian) penis is
>independent of the digestive tract.  Hemipenes are (as the name implies)
>paired structures on either side of the cloacal opening in lizards (all?
>some?) that assist in guiding sperm into the female's cloaca.  The
>intromittent organ of ratites is, I believe, a single structure consisting
>of an extension of the cloaca (as is the intromittent organ of the so-called
>"Tailed" frog Ascaphus truei of western North America).
>--


Not wishing to blow my own horn on this one, but I thought my previous
suggestion of a "willyoid" neatly sidestepped this whole dilema.

Cheers, Paul

pwillis@ozemail.com.au