Os clitoridis

The os clitoridis (also called the os clitoris or baubellum) is a bone inside the clitoris of many mammalian taxa. It is homologous to the baculum in male mammals.

The structure is more evolutionarily labile than the baculum, exhibiting both more inherent variability and more gains and losses over time,[1] which has been interpreted as evidence for its non-functionality.[1]

Other work posits that the variation in the os clitoridis could be driven by intersexual conflict, lock-and-key genital evolution, and cryptic female choice, especially given the high level of variation within species as well as between them.[2]

References

  1. Lough-Stevens, Michael; et al. (January 2018). "The baubellum is more developmentally and evolutionarily labile than the baculum". Ecology and Evolution. 8 (2): 1073–1083. doi:10.1002/ece3.3634. PMID 29375780. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  2. Sloan, Nadia (September 2019). "The evolution of female genitalia". Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 32 (9): 882–899. doi:10.1111/jeb.13503. Retrieved 5 October 2020.


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