about hyenas ('cause I was reading about this recently and it's sorta fascinating):
hyenas were widely mistaken, in ancient times, for hermaphroditic beings/creatures able to change sex on a whim because the genitalia of female spotted hyenas very closely mimics that of the male (the scientific term is "peniform clitoris"). this is due to a high level of androgenic hormones in the bloodstream of female hyena fetuses (feti?). evolutionarily, this is probably because larger girl-hyenas have a better chance at survival, and higher androgen levels means larger girl-hyenas -- the genitalia thing is just a random side effect.
(today's lesson in Random Evolutionary Stuff brought to you by Stephen Jay Gould's book Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes, which is all about Random Evolutionary Stuff.)
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hyenas were widely mistaken, in ancient times, for hermaphroditic beings/creatures able to change sex on a whim because the genitalia of female spotted hyenas very closely mimics that of the male (the scientific term is "peniform clitoris"). this is due to a high level of androgenic hormones in the bloodstream of female hyena fetuses (feti?). evolutionarily, this is probably because larger girl-hyenas have a better chance at survival, and higher androgen levels means larger girl-hyenas -- the genitalia thing is just a random side effect.
(today's lesson in Random Evolutionary Stuff brought to you by Stephen Jay Gould's book Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes, which is all about Random Evolutionary Stuff.)