Day By Day

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Balls and Bats -- The Latest "Scientific" Finding -- Big Brain Equals Small Testes (in bats)



Now this explains a lot.

At last, "scientific" confirmation of what every academic knows, but is afraid to admit.
From the New Scientist:

Big brain means small testes, finds bat study

The brainier male bats are, the smaller their testicles, according to a new study. Researchers suggest the correlation exists because both organs require a lot of energy to grow and maintain, leading individual species to find the optimum balance.

The analysis of 334 species of bat found that in species where the females were promiscuous, the males had evolved larger testes but had relatively small brains. In species, where the females were monogamous, the situation was reversed. Male fidelity appeared to have no influence over testes or brain size.

Read the whole thing here.

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