Science
Related: About this forumZoologger: The fish with its genitals on its head
Species: Phallostethus cuulong
Habitat: surface waters of the Mekong River in Vietnam
The male fish, a Phallostethus cuulong just 2 centimetres long, weaves between drifting vegetation in the sluggish waters of a canal. He closes in on a female, swims alongside her and tries to mate with her.
But to an outside observer, he seems to be doing it wrong. His head is right next to the female's, but he's at a 45-degree angle so his rear end is well below hers. Sounds misguided, but actually he's doing it exactly right it's just that his gonads are on his head.
This is the challenge faced by all priapiumfish, a little-known group of Asian fish that have their reproductive organs on their chins, just behind their mouths. How does this Cronenbergian arrangement work?
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22023-zoologger-the-fish-with-its-genitals-on-its-head.html
on edit: suck this Loungies! SCIENCE wins!
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Trust me, it wasn't that special.
rfranklin
(13,200 posts)so do women but you can't let on that you know.
rug
(82,333 posts)Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)Seems to me that it'd be a good attribute from a natural selection standpoint..