Browsing by Author "Malecha, Anna W."
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Item Morphological variability of baculum (os penis) in the polecat Mustela putorius(Acta zoologica cracoviensia 52A (1-2): 115-120, 2009, 2009) Malecha, Anna W.; Krawczyk, Agata J.; Hromada, MartinAbstract. The study presents the morphological variation in three traits of the baculum (os penis) in the polecat (Mustela putorius Linnaeus, 1758), based on an analysis of 108 males (7 juveniles and 101 adults) collected in NE Slovakia between 1958-1978. Adult in- dividuals had a significantly larger baculum (length, width and distal tip size) than juve- niles. All three measured baculum traits correlated significantly with each other. However, these relationships only explained from 10% (width . distal tip size relation- ship) up to 51% (length . width relationship) of the variance between the studied traits. Therefore, evolutionary analysis based on baculum variation should take into account not only baculum size, but also base width, which may be a measure of baculum developmen- tal stage. Moreover, coefficients of variation were 10.2%, 30.2% and 11.4%, respectively for length, width and distal tip size of the baculum, much greater than the known variation of cranial measurements. Therefore, more data on the variability among individuals, as well as between measured traits, are needed for a better understanding of the evolutionary processes which influence baculum size and shape.Item Zróżnicowanie kości penalnej os penis u ssaków - filogeneza i ekologia(Polskie Towarzystwo Przyrodników im. Kopernika, 2009) Krawczyk, Agata J.; Malecha, Anna W.The penis bone (also called as baculum or os penis) is a heterotopic bone occurring in such orders like: carnivores, bats, insectivores, rodents and some primates. Baculum is extremely morphologically diverse both in shape and size, even between closely related species. Hence it has been widely used as a systematic tool. Consequently, os penis serves different functions across the species: e.g. stimulation of reproductive track, mechanical support, protection of the urethra from compression. Some analysis suggest also, that hooked tip of the penis bone can be used to damage and remove sperm which comes from the previous male. It can be also used as an indicator of genetic quality in males because it continues growth throughout life. Numerous researches into baculum provide some information about animal evolution, sexual selection and reproductive strategies in the different groups of animal. However, our knowledge about evolution, significance and environmental influence on the os penis seems to be incomplete and needs to be further studied.