Dolphin Vagina
⚡ ALL INFORMATION CLICK HERE 👈🏻👈🏻👈🏻
Dolphin Vagina
Argos
AO.com
River Island
Groupon
Debenhams
Wayfair
Very
eBay
Boohoo
Nike
Currys
Virgin Media
ASOS
Dell
My Profile
Logout
Login
Latest Headlines
NASA
Apple
My Profile
Logout
Login
Sunday, Mar 7th 2021
12PM
-4°C
3PM
-4°C
5-Day Forecast
RELATED ARTICLES Previous 1 Next
Never before seen behaviour: Dolphin breathes through its mouth
No compatible source was found for this video.
Foreground --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Opaque
Background --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent
Window --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent
Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400%
Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow
Font Family Default Monospace Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Sans-Serif Casual Script Small Caps
Embed icon
Embed Most Watched Videos
By embedding this you agree to our terms and conditions
Cancel
Copy code
Tick icon
Code copied
Site
Web
Enter search term:
Search
Download our iPhone app
Download our Android app
Discover deals on home essentials and electricals
Apply AO.com voucher codes to save on home appliances
Check out the latest B&Q clearance for great offers
Save your pennies with eBay's deals
Keep yourselves entertained with these electrical offers
Check out the latest Wayfair sale to save on furniture
Home
News
U.S.
Sport
TV&Showbiz
Australia
Femail
Health
Science
Money
Video
Travel
DailyMailTV
Discounts
Published: 14:57 GMT, 11 October 2017 | Updated: 14:59 GMT, 11 October 2017
Female dolphins have evolved complicated vaginas that protect them from being fertilised by unwanted partners, new research suggests.
For common dolphins, common seals, porpoises and bottlenose dolphins, the best position for fertilisation is with the male on top with his penis hooked underneath.
The vaginal folds of the porpoise and bottlenose dolphin make penis entry much more difficult.
These sneaky females make small movements during sex so undesirable male suitors can't get in the best position for fertilisation, researchers found.
The discovery was made by inflating the penises of dead dolphins to simulate their strange sex lives.
Pictured is the shape correspondence of male and female genitalia. The silicone vaginal endocast is lined up with the inflated penis tip in sexually mature: (A) porpoises, (B) bottlenose dolphins, (C) short-beaked common dolphins and (D) common seals
Researchers found dead dolphins and inflated their penises so they were fully erect.
They then simulated sex and used computed tomography (CT) scans to visualise how deeply the penis penetrates the vagina and where the two touch.
They also created silicone models of the interior of the dolphin vagina to explore how its shape might have co-evolved with the shape of the male penis.
Researchers found that there was an optimal position for the vagina and penis to fit together which varied with overall body positioning.
Marine mammals have particularly interesting sexual intercourse as they must contend with some unusual constraints, such as making sure sea water does not enter the vagina.
Dolphins, in particular, have strangely fascinating sex lives due to their elaborate vaginas and a unique type of penis that is almost always erect.
Researchers led by Dalhousie University inflated the penises of dead dolphins, before simulating sex to find out how these organs fit inside the female.
They discovered that the females have unusual folds in their vaginas which the male's penis must navigate to fertilise the egg.
'There's this unparalleled level of vaginal diversity that we had no idea existed before', Dr Dara Orbach of Dalhousie University told New Scientist .
Male bottlenose dolphins generally form teams of two to four individuals to guard their females.
Females do not get much choice about who mates with her and may be forced to mate with everyone.
'It might appear behaviourally that females are very passive,' said Dr Orbach.
'But looking at the reproductive anatomy, we're learning that they have all sorts of cryptic ways to control paternity.'
For common dolphins, common seals, porpoises and bottlenose dolphins the best position for fertilisation was with the male on top and his penis hooked underneath (stock image)
As part of the study, researchers wanted to find out how often dolphins have sex for 'fun'.
'By looking at how the genitals align, we can now say certain body positions are more likely to lead to successful fertilization than others, which might be for purposes other than reproducing,' Dr Orbach told Science .
'Is it play? Is it working out hierarchies? Is it establishing dominance? Is it learning? There could be many functions of sex.'
Dr Orbach's team examined the reproductive tracts of dolphins, porpoises and seals that had died naturally in order to find out more about their sex lives.
An image reconstructed from CT scans showing how the penis of the common bottlenose dolphin (red) fits within the intricate folds and turns of a bottlenose dolphin vagina (pink)
As part of the study, researchers wanted to find out how often dolphins have sex for 'fun'.
'By looking at how the genitals align, we can now say certain body positions are more likely to lead to successful fertilization than others, which might be for purposes other than reproducing,' Dr Orbach said.
'Is it play? Is it working out hierarchies? Is it establishing dominance? Is it learning? There could be many functions of sex.'
After blowing up the genitalia, they used computed tomography (CT) scans to visualise how deeply the penis penetrates the vagina and where the two touch.
They also created silicone models of the interior of the dolphin vagina to explore how its shape might have co-evolved with the shape of the male penis.
Researchers found that there was an optimal position for the vagina and penis to fit together which varied with overall body positioning.
'The deeper the male is able to extend his penis within the vagina, the shorter a distance his sperm must travel to reach her egg', Dr Orbach told MailOnline.
'In some species it appears belly-to-belly copulation will enhance genital alignment, while in other species it appears a sexual approach from the female's side will result in deeper penetration', she said.
'There is amazing variation in the number, shape, size, and positioning of vaginal folds across species', she said.
Scientists simulated sex and used computed tomography (CT) scans to visualise how deeply the penis penetrates the vagina and where the two touch (stock image)
From looking at the genitalia, scientists could make predictions about what positions the dolphins would use in real life.
'Body positioning during copulation is predicted based on anatomy', Dr Orbach explained.
Most research on genitalia has focused on the penis alone but this study looked at how the penis and vagina fitted together.
'While it may seem intuitive that the penis fits well into the vagina during copulation, the biomechanics and details of the anatomical fit can be quite complex and have seldom been explored,' said Dr Orbach.
The dolphin penis contains a large proportion of tough and elastic fibres instead of spongy erectile tissue.
'The penis is extruded prior to copulation, meaning there are hydrodynamic drag forces acting on the penis that likely influence is structure and shape', said Dr Orbach.
'Salt water is lethal to cetacean sperm, and females are expected to have adaptations to keep salt water out of their reproductive tracts', she said.
'Additionally, cetaceans do not have appendages to hold each other in place during copulation, so the angle of approach is critical'.
The team found there were particular parts of the vagina that were stimulated during sex which could help captive breeding programmes.
The comments below have not been moderated.
The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.
We are no longer accepting comments on this article.
Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd
Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group
The Mechanics of Dolphin Sex: All The Dirty Details... | Discover Magazine
Female dolphins twist during sex only the best... | Daily Mail Online
Dolphin vaginas no longer a total mystery, thanks to Dal... | CBC News
Do You Know What a Dolphins Vagina Looks Like? - YouTube
Female dolphins have turned their vaginas into ‘weapons’
Marine mammals have surprisingly fascinating sex lives, including constantly erect penises and vaginas with multiple folds. Researchers are trying to understand the ins and outs.
Frances Willick · CBC News · Posted: Apr 26, 2017 7:00 AM AT | Last Updated: April 26, 2017
Dara Orbach is probably one of very few people in the world who regularly gets sent dolphin vaginas in the mail.
"The boxes don't usually smell very good when they arrive," says Orbach, a post-doctoral fellow at Dalhousie University and a research assistant at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.
The marine mammologist has spent the last few years studying the genitals of whales, dolphins, porpoises, sea lions and seals to understand how they fit together during sex.
First, she has to actually obtain the animals' vaginas and penises. Orbach has a permit to receive the reproductive organs of marine mammals that have died of natural causes after a necropsy has taken place. It has taken her years, but at its peak, her collection included about 140 specimens.
Second, she has to figure out how the penises and vaginas interact in real life when, in fact, they're lying inert and disembodied on her laboratory table.
That's where the silicone comes in.
Orbach and her colleagues — Patricia Brennan at Mount Holyoke College, Diane Kelly at the University of Massachusetts and Mauricio Solano at Tufts University — figured out how to fill a bottlenose dolphin's vagina with silicone to make a mold of it and understand its shape. They then froze the actual vagina, and thawed it right before simulated sex.
Next, they inflated a dolphin's penis and fixed it with chemicals to preserve it and make it rigid.
After that, they used CT scans of both the individual organs and the two together to understand exactly how the organs fit.
"It's not really surprising that the penis fits in the vagina," Orbach says. "We know that copulation is the most direct possible interaction between a male and female."
What was surprising was the variety of complexity in the vaginas.
Marine mammal penises have long been studied by researchers. It was already known, for example, that dolphin penises are constantly semi-erect. But vaginas have, for perhaps obvious reasons, been more difficult to examine. Orbach's work changed that.
"In the typical mammalian vagina, there's nothing between the clitoris and the cervix. There are no other structures along the way. But then you open up a sperm whale and you might find 40 of these vaginal folds. You open up a bottlenose dolphin, you might find only one. So there's a huge and incredible variation that hadn't really been documented before."
The purpose of those vaginal folds is a question Orbach still hasn't definitively answered.
It's possible that some folds prevent seawater, which is lethal to sperm, from entering the reproductive tract. It's also conceivable that they store sperm or expel unwanted sperm.
The folds create a sort of obstacle course that the penis and sperm must navigate in order to fertilize the egg. That's just one of the ways that the female may be able to control which male becomes a dolphin daddy.
"The female can potentially adjust her body slightly just before or during the copulation, and that would force the male's penis to be diverted into a blind-end sac or not quite aligned very well, so she might have the ability to control paternity by body movement and body positioning," Orbach said.
The researchers' work led them to a better understanding of which positions may be more likely to lead to insemination for different species.
The big question everyone asks Orbach is "why?" Why do you want to study the genitals and copulation of marine mammals?
When she tells strangers what she does for a living, they are universally fascinated, she says.
"I feel like I'm both a conversation starter and a conversation stopper because as soon as I tell people what I do, that's the end of any other conversation that was happening. I've never had anyone say, 'Oooh, that's gross.' People seem to be really, really intrigued."
They were, indeed, intrigued when she presented some of her findings to a meeting of the American Association of Anatomists in Chicago last weekend. She has been swamped with media interviews ever since.
While Orbach believes her work could help with species conservation and artificial insemination someday, she says understanding animals on a basic, anatomical level is also important.
Orbach says the biggest challenge she faces is trying to help people understand why that basic science matters.
"I feel that a lot of people think that science should only be important if it can be applied somehow towards either making money or towards helping to save lives. It feels often like a struggle to explain to people why understanding the basic foundational sciences are also equally critical.
"Why should we only understand something if it benefits humans? Why is it not important to understand all of life?"
Audience Relations, CBC P.O. Box 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6
Toll-free (Canada only): 1-866-306-4636
TTY/Teletype writer: 1-866-220-6045
It is a priority for CBC to create a website that is accessible to all Canadians including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges.
Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem .
