Spiny anteater reveals bizarre penis -- video

Video and news story about the spiny anteater's remarkable penis.

The spiny anteater's four-headed phallus had been puzzling scientists. "When we tried to collect semen by [electrically-stimulated ejaculation] before, not only did we not get a single drop, but the whole penis swelled up to a four-headed monster that wouldn't fit the female reproductive tract, which has only two branches," says Johnston.

“Now we know that during a normal erection, two heads get shut down and the other two fit," he told New Scientist. The heads used are swapped each time the mammal has sex.

Link (Thanks, Pete!)

[#1 posted by Stacyj , October 26, 2007 2:23 PM]

I'm sitting at home on a Friday night, watching anteater porn ... yeah. Somehow the term, "new all-time low" just doesn't even begin to cut it this time.

Thanks, BoingBoing! ;)

[#2 posted by mellowknees , October 26, 2007 2:56 PM]

This really should have been about hedgehogs so I could have made a Ron Jeremy joke.

[#3 posted by deliciousidiot , October 26, 2007 3:08 PM]

um....where is my unicorn chaser? really there should be no question here. my poor curious eyeballs.

[#4 posted by mrfitz , October 26, 2007 5:00 PM]

ew

[#5 posted by mark zero , October 26, 2007 5:04 PM]

Stacyj, it's called BoingBoing for a reason.

[#6 posted by Fnarf , October 26, 2007 5:07 PM]

Don't let the people at bmezine.com find out about this.

[#7 posted by carriem , October 26, 2007 7:15 PM]

They did WHAT to WHAT?!

ewwww god that's $&#*n TERRIBLE. And it didn't work eh? Well whaddya know...

[#8 posted by Cyanaura , October 27, 2007 4:17 AM]

Wait...Xeni didn't post this?

[#9 posted by gobo , October 27, 2007 2:03 PM]

Aww, that spiny anteater loves his keeper so much.