Why does a person not have a bone in the penis?

Most predators, as well as rodents and primates, have a bone (lat. baculum) in the penis of males, including our closest relatives on the evolutionary tree. Even the field mouse has a tiny baculum, and the walrus has more than half a meter (up to 75 cm) bone!

When, how and why did a person lose this bone?

The bones of the penis (baculum) of various mammals.

Another one is macaques.

Imagine how much easier it would be to end the unpleasant conversations with the authorities? He took it out, knocked on the table impressively and left, they say, do what you want, and I expressed my opinion. Again, Stallone and many others would not have had to resort to prosthetic surgery for erectile dysfunction. And how much money would Viagra manufacturers lose…

By the way, anticipating the question: cetaceans and elephants do not have a baculum, so your dream of hanging a two or even three-meter bone member on the wall, alas, will not come true. But the walrus, believe me, is quite impressive, no wonder the expression “walrus horseradish” is so popular.

On the Internet, you can find for sale both raw and beautiful carved walrus baculums. Meet – fuckn, thu, walrus baculum.

And here is the carved walrus.

Almost a work of art 😉

So what about the man, why did he lose such a pretty bone?

Most likely, the ancestor of all mammals did not have a baculum, but already 95 million years ago our ancestors acquired this bone.

Before finding out why she disappeared, it would be worthwhile to find out why the bone in the penis appeared. What evolutionary advantages did it provide to its owners? Believe me, if she would help males with a low hormonal background (reduced potency) to gain an advantage, then this option would hardly become decisive in the selection. Low potency, as a result, a small chance for the female to become pregnant. No, evolution definitely doesn’t help losers.

Then why? Research scientists have shown that the most impressive baculum is possessed by males of those animals that have a fairly short, pronounced mating season. At this time, males actively mate with females, competing with each other. The baculum allows the male to have very frequent and prolonged sexual intercourse with females.

What is the benefit? But when an exhausted female crawls out from under such a male, then she simply has neither time nor desire for the next applicant who wants to roll her baculum to her.

Thus, males increase their chance that the female will give birth and will raise their offspring.

What about our next of kin?

Here is our closest male relative, the owner of the baculum.

Despite such an impressive economy, the actual penis of a chimpanzee is small, and the baculum is slightly smaller than a fingernail. This, by the way, makes it clear to us why the baculums of ancient hominids were not found – they were very small.

But why is the chimpanzee’s baculum so small? The reason can be understood when we look at the social life of chimpanzees. One of the ways for a female to establish her social status in a pack is to be desired by everyone, and above all by dominant males. Chimpanzees often kill strangers, only the female has a chance to enter a new flock (and even more often during estrus). Because females rarely refuse males, so many males get a chance for offspring.

Sexual intercourse is extremely short-lived, literally a few seconds, not exhausting the female. And what is the benefit of this female? Although the dominants have primary access to the body, any non-dominant male can quickly relieve the “sexual need” if the female does not mind. Whoever becomes a father, all the chimpanzees of the flock will protect her offspring, because many had a chance to become a father. But a female with babies from a strange group, if she enters a flock, will probably be waiting for the murder of her offspring – they will not feed the offspring of strangers in the flock.

Scientists considered that the baculum is present in animals in which a very long sexual intercourse prevails, and they calculated the duration of such sexual intercourse. Noticeably longer than three minutes – there is a buculum, much less – absent.

So what about a person – did our ancestors also use the quick sexual intercourse of everyone with everyone, which led to the uselessness of the baculum, like in chimpanzees?

This is supported by the fact that human females (women) do not have estrus (estrus) as such, and they are always sexually attractive to the opposite sex, i.e. ready for sexual intercourse all the time. By the way, this is found in only one species of animals – pygmy bonobo chimpanzees. Here they are having sex much more often and more varied than their larger counterparts, including humans. As a result, they are much less aggressive than common chimpanzees, especially males. “Make Love, not War!” – exactly about them, in stressful situations they just have sex more often.

Male and female bonobos communicate with humans.

The compiler of the Kama Sutra himself would envy the number of positions used for sexual intercourse. All types of sex practiced by people are represented by them, in fact, they have much more such positions, since they are noticeably superior to people in flexibility and physical strength. And yes, they are the only animals other than humans to practice oral sex and lip-to-lip kissing.

Sex is also sex in Africa.

Personally, these bonobos are quite nice to me, but scientists believe that the sexual behavior of ancient people was completely different. The absence of estrus meant that the woman became permanently attractive to the man, and he no longer had to look for other females to satisfy his desire. This allowed the development of a long monogamous relationship in pairs.

Someone will object, why were polygamous relationships so bad? Why is the version of the same bonobos chimpanzees bad, when each male of the flock is potentially the father of any baby in the group?

Here it is worth dwelling on a completely different aspect. In human cubs, the period of childhood, when it is completely dependent on the support of adults, is greatly increased, much more than in the same chimpanzees. And this means that one mother’s care for 2-3 children is already physically not enough, and another parent is needed – the father.

In turn, the father, spending a lot of time and effort, must be sure that these are his offspring. All this, to some extent, determines monogamous relationships: the father helps the mother raise offspring, and the woman’s fidelity guarantees him the continuation of the family.

And yet, the monogamous relationships of our ancestors, and not the “sinking sin” became the reason for the uselessness of the baculum.

* * *

And if someone reproaches you that you “shot back” too quickly, or a young man in bed will disappoint you, remember this article. Carved walrus horseradish is quite possible to buy on the Internet, but the two of you are quite capable of building your relationship – you just need to go towards each other. Just think in advance if all this is worth your time and effort.

Still, the warmth and love of a real relationship is not easy to find, and therefore be tolerant and do not be “tolerant”.

Author: Bald Kamrad (@LKamrad)

Upd.

Question:

If the offspring is brought up collectively, then one more parent as such is not needed, because the child is brought up not by one tired female, but by a group of females, such a permanent kindergarten. And males can do what they should: protection and prey.

Answer by @LKamrad:

It seems to be logical, but remember the proverb “seven nannies have a child without eyes.” When all children are common, in fact, no one cares about specific kids. Protect the young in general. Well, one of the many will die and do not care. But in humans, reproducibility is extremely low, and therefore the price of the survival of their child for mother and father is very high.

When the young are not so defenseless, the herd (flock) as a whole is able to provide protection for the babies. To do this, they, at least, need to keep up with the herd. People are much worse. Human children are completely helpless for a very, incredibly long time and require constant protection and care for years. This is how permanent pairs of fathers and mothers appeared for the common care of children, and soon grandmothers pulled themselves up. Grandfathers, I suspect, were the last.

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