Sexy Science Fact #18 – CLAM SAUSAGE FEST

I’ve talked about how evolutionary, dudes don’t matter all that much. There are a handful of animals (including spider mites, bdelloid rotifers, and whiptail lizards) that are LADIES ONLY. They make their babies with a few different methods that all result in a chickload of chicks at the end. What we’ve learned is fellas are sometimes not that useful and that you can’t have a species without the fillies.

BUT APPARENTLY THAT IS NOT THE CASE.

In some species of Corbicula clams, they are ALL DUDES. (Yes, I LOVE the irony of an all-boy species being also all-clams.)

Aad van Meerkerk for Dutch Wikipedia

BUT HOW?

These guy-clams are born hermaphrodites (can make both sperm and eggs) and so they selfie in the nature way – meaning they make bebes with their own sperm and eggs. Which isn’t that weird. BUT here’s the weird part. They somehow kick out all of the egg genes during fertilization so they are just sperm clones of each other. All dudes. So these chaps would just be copying themselves forever which is not always the best choice.

Asexuality isn’t that unusual in nature, but one of the big benefits of sex (besides, um, orgasms) is it helps living things have more diversity in their genes, which is generally a plus.

So what these special gentlemen do is they STEAL EGGS FROM OTHER CLAMS. Clam boinking is usually more of a spewing of lady- and dude-spunk into the abyss (or the ocean) and hoping they find each other.

richardong / bostonreefers.org

Sometimes the Corbicula clam might find itself with a foreign egg. Instead of scrambling up an omelette, the clam might go the sexy route and fertilize this egg. He might not successfully eject all of the egg’s genes and POW. New genetic diversity and a possibly weird hybrid-clam that is still mostly Corbicula.

 

 

Sources

• Rare gene capture in predominantly androgenetic species, S Hedtke, et al (PNAS)
• All-male clams escape from genetic canyons by stealing eggs, E Yong (Nat Geo / Phenomena)

Sexy Science Fact #3 – INTERSPECIES ROMPS

BESTIALITY!

Let me start off by saying that one of you requested that I write about penguins because they are your favorite animals. Now, I am a reasonable human being, and I don’t mind when someone tells me how to do my job (this is clearly my job). But just so you know, when you make requests, I have every right to talk about the sexual violation of your favorite animal. NEVER SORRY.

Anyway, back to BESTIALITY! To be fair, I looked up the actual definition of that word, and it says it is sex between a human and an animal, which I personally find pretty squicky and I’m not actually writing about that. But I AM writing about sex between two totally different animals.

A FUR SEAL and a KING PENGUIN.

So a fur seal starts out looking like this:

Ville Miettinen / Wikimedia Commons

An adorable, please-boop-me-on-the-nose face, amirite??

But then, it grows into THIS MONSTER:

Chris Gomersal /Arkive.org

I’M GONNA EAT YOUR FACE is what that expression is saying to me.

ANYWHO. In 2006, some researchers witnessed a fur seal teenage-type dude LITERALLY HUMPING a penguin. Not even an isolated incident. They filmed it (ANIMAL PORN) twice in two different locations. And there is no mistake. This is a seal mounting a penguin.

screengrab from BBC

​There are some ideas why this is happening, maybe the seals are horny and can’t find any willing ladies? Maybe he is inexperienced and is practicing his sweet moves? Maybe it started off as playing and got really dark? WE DON’T KNOW.

Horrifyingly, this might be a “learned behavior,” meaning a seal might see his bro doing this and think “cool moves!” and try himself. This means, THIS BEASTIALITY MIGHT HAPPEN MORE FREQUENTLY IN THE FUTURE.

HIDE YO KIDS.

Sources

• Multiple occurrences of king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) sexual harassment by Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella), WA Haddad, et al (Polar Biology)
• Seals discovered having sex with penguins, M Walker (BBC Online)