News in Brief: Bird penises start strong, wither away

Read articles, including Science News stories written for ages 9-14, on the SNK website. News in Brief: Bird penises start strong, wither away Male chickens lose phalluses before hatchingBy Cristy Gelling

Web edition: June 6, 2013

Male chickens lose phalluses before hatching

By Cristy Gelling

Web edition: June 6, 2013

Enlarge A false-color micrograph shows the rudimentary penis (pink) of a chick embryo before it begins to shrink.Credit: A.M. Herrera and M.J. Cohn, University of Florida

Some ducks have penises longer than their bodies, while chickens make do with a tiny bump. The vast size difference between the two types of fowl is due to a wave of cell death during chicken development, researchers report June 6 in Current Biology.

Although the ancestors of birds had penises, 97 percent of bird species have phalluses so small that they can’t insert into the female genitalia. Martin Cohn of the University of Florida and his colleagues found that in chick embryos, a gene turns on in the tip of the developing phallus, causing the cells to die and the tissue to wither away. In duck embryos, the gene does not turn on and the penis keeps on growing.

The researchers were able to kick-start some growth of the embryonic chick penis by blocking the action of the gene. That result suggests that chickens have not entirely lost the genetic pathways that make their waterfowl relatives better endowed.

Citations

A.M. Herrera et al. Developmental basis of phallus reduction during bird evolution. Current Biology. Published online June 6, 2013. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.062. [Go to]

Suggested Reading

S. Milius. For ducks, penis length depends on the other guys. Science News. Vol.178, August 28, 2010, p. 11. Available online: [Go to]

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