Monday, October 27, 2014

Like a Lizard - Autotomy

I've been having a lot of attacks in my sleep lately, severe ones. In my semi-conscious brain, it's as if I could pull off my "male member" just as a lizard sheds its tail to protect itself in a process called autotomy. The word autotomy comes from Greek for "self severing", or self amputation. That's pretty much what I'm trying to do in my sleep, just rip it off and hope that it doesn't grow back as a lizard's does.

I thought that only lizards had this capability, but according to Wikipedia, "over 200 species of invertebrates are capable of using autotomy." That's amazing!  There are even two species of mice capable of autotomy - they release skin (including "hair follicles, sweat glands, fur and cartilage") and grow it all back.

In lizards, it's called caudal autotomy. So in my case, would it be called penile autotomy?

Here's a video discussing the red-tailed vanzosaur.


I also found this article that talks about a "simultaneous hermaphrodite" species that autotomizes its penis after copulation.

No comments:

Post a Comment