Development of a Penis from the Vestigial Penis...

[SunsetSnails]

Development of a Penis from the Vestigial Penis in the
Female Apple Snail, Pomacea canaliculata
NAOKUNI TAKEDA
Brainway Group, Brain Science Institute, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research,
2-1 Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan

ABSTRACT
In the apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata), females have an undifferentiated mass of tissue near the anus. Although this mass is called the vestigial penis, there are no signs of a hermaphroditic gonad or any structure that represents a transition from one sex to the other. Based on considerations of the steroid hormone theory of reproduction and in view of disruption of endocrine systems in molluscs by organotins, a study was made of the effects of tributyltin on female snails. Exposure to tributyltin resulted in the so-called imposer phenomenon, and both a penis and a penis sheath were newly generated from the so-called vestigial penis. The same phenomenon was also induced by testosterone. Thus the vestigial penis, named more than one hundred years ago, has been demonstrated for the first time to be a rudiment of the penis itself.

Full article (PDF)

[SunsetSnails]

No one thinks this is amazingly interesting besides me????

[Stijn]

It's very interesting! Let's now hope that it isn't appearing in my snail population as effect of environmental polution

Thanks for bringing it to our attention!

Stijn

btw. I removed the full article and replaced it with the abstract +link to full article. This because there might be copyright problems with adding the whole article. Just to be sure...

[SunsetSnails]

Yea, lets hope!!! I kind of wish I could experience this phenomonen in my tank!!!

Yea, thanks for editing that for me - it was rather weird looking, I'm sure it is easier to read in PDF format.

Okay, that is fine also with the copyright issue. I understand.

Thanks for reading! I had to do some research (in the periodicals) at my college for the paper I was writing and found this.

--Sunset Snail
P.S. Stijn, do you do any research yourself such as experiments, etc.?

[Stijn]

This kind of articles are often not easy to read. My compliments that you do read them!

No, my research isn't on snail biology, although it would be very interesting! I look at human material

[luvfishies]

This sounds like it would be an interesting read.

However, when I go to download the PDF file I get an error message saying that the file is damaged and cannot be fixed.

[SunsetSnails]

This kind of articles are often not easy to read. My compliments that you do read them!

No, my research isn't on snail biology, although it would be very interesting! I look at human material

Since I understand the anatomy of an Applesnail, the only thing I had to look up was how much a nanogram is.... weird? Yes.

Is there a such thing as snail biology? I love snails... but not so much all other mollusks, even though they are interesting as well.

[SunsetSnails]

This sounds like it would be an interesting read.

However, when I go to download the PDF file I get an error message saying that the file is damaged and cannot be fixed.

I have the article saved on my computer if you can not find it... It is VERY interesting... let me know if you cant access it!!!