Why Men Don't Have Sensory Whiskers and Spiny Genitals

sciencehabit writes "Most male mammals wield a penis covered with spines made of keratin, the same material that forms fingernails, to sweep out competitors' sperm and irritate a female into ovulating. Even chimpanzees, our closest relatives, have penile spines. So why don't men? A new study suggests that this feature disappeared due to a chunk of DNA that went missing after our evolutionary divergence from chimps. The researchers have identified another DNA deletion that may have contributed to humans' bigger brains."

Comments

We didn't evolve from Chimps...

[Anonymous Coward]

...we evolved from a common ancestor. That Ancestor is not a chimp but something completely different in terms of biological classification. That's like saying A GPS device evolved form a defibrillator.

" ... irritate a female into ovulating" ...???

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Most male mammals wield a penis covered with spines made of keratin, the same material that forms fingernails, to sweep out competitors' sperm and irritate a female into ovulating.

Human females are different. They get irritated when ovulating. Before, during and after, in fact.

Re:" ... irritate a female into ovulating" ...???

[Antisyzygy]

So they are always irritated?

Re:I don't have spines on my penis

[g0bshiTe]

Why if they were in Florida were they taken to Cedars in CA?

Re:Occam's Razor

[joocemann]

The female chooses the mutant. The two things are not separate. The mutant male had no spines, so she chose him. Her sons had no spines, so other fems chose them. Fitness at work.

Re:I don't have spines on my penis

[tomhudson]

They were tourists, not residents of Florida. Tourists have been known to travel from place to place, and I guess after their little escapade, they were in a hurry to leave Florida, since if they had gone to a Florida hospital, they would have been arrested.

It's in the paragraph immediately under the part I quoted:

Had the two not fled from Florida quickly enough, they would have had to face the law they had breached.

California *probably* doesn't have a law about sex with porcupines (Note to self - ask Charlie Sheen).

Re:I don't have spines on my penis

[tomhudson]

If you think that's bad, there was a debate a few decades ago that went on about the law prohibiting sex with dead people.

One legislator pointed out that could be interpreted differently from the obvious intent - like "my [spouse] is dead in the sack", as opposed to deceased.

So they wasted time debating the differences between "dead" and "deceased", instead of just rewording it ...

Or like the municipal bylaw up here that tried to ban massage parlours, by defining "massage" as "the manipulation of another person's body" and making it a crime for "someone who is not licensed to practice massage." Really bad definition, since it would ban pretty much all physical contact, include those same stupid politicians shaking hands during elections, or doctors setting broken bones, or you wiping your kid's runny nose.

Re:Occam's Razor

[mdielmann]

That's all fine and dandy, but considering that presumably, females of other species don't want them, either, why do they still exist there?

That's something of a presumption, given the fact that condoms can still be bought "ribbed for her pleasure".