Biologists are hardworking and underappreciated as scientists. They study the evolution and anatomy of the world around us to better inform us about animals and ourselves. They also post animal wangs on Twitter because hey, why not?
Yep, biologists need a laugh like everyone else, and thus, they have started posting the many bizarre genitalia of the animal kingdom to Twitter. A few examples:
https://twitter.com/ProfLKloepper/status/636592499805548544
Relative to body size, barnacles have the longest penis in the animal kingdom. Quality #junkoff pic.twitter.com/H3sVDkt1ki
— Dan Smale (@DanSmale1) August 26, 2015
https://twitter.com/Leolupus79/status/636592521594957824
I study trees… #junkoff pic.twitter.com/wzTM7Nme8b
— Dr. Alex Sullivan (@lxsllvn) August 26, 2015
As you might guess, there are many, many more. We spared you the spinier and otherwise terrifying ones. As to why biologists, botanists, and even paleontologists are getting in on the animal junk fun… well, biologists need to laugh too, and really, it’s a poorly explored area to the lay scientist. Reproductive structures are some of the most bizarre, and fascinating, areas of research, because they often tell us how animals have changed and adapted to different circumstances over time. If an animal has, say, a maze of a reproductive organ, that’s something worth exploring.
This also follows the scientific method: They’re gathering data to prove the hypothesis that genitalia are inherently funny. We suspect this long, hard research will keep going for quite a while.
(via Gizmodo)