为什么人类没有阴茎骨？科学家现在可能知道了答案 [英国媒体]

Why don't humans have a penis bone? Scientists may now know

为什么人类没有阴茎骨？科学家现在可能知道了答案



Speed of human mating might be behind the lack of a baculum in humans, suggests study tracing bone’s evolution

人类交配速度可能导致人类缺乏阴茎骨，追踪骨头进化的研究如是认为。

It can be as long as a finger in a monkey. In the walrus, it can be two feet long. But the human male has lost it completely. And researchers are a little stumped.

猴子的阴茎骨有人类手指那么长。而海象的阴茎骨长达2英尺。而人类男性完全没有阴茎骨。研究人员有点被难住了。

Known as the baculum to scientists with an interest, the penis bone is a marvel of evolution. It pops up in mammals and primates around the world, but varies so much in terms of length and whether it is present at all, that it is described as the most diverse bone ever to exist.

阴茎骨是进化的奇迹。它突然出现在哺乳动物和灵长类动物身上，但是在长度上却有着巨大的差异，而且有的根本就没有阴茎骨，所以它被称为史上最多样化的骨头。

Prompted by the extraordinary differences in penis bone length found in the animal kingdom, scientists set out to reconstruct the evolutionary story of the baculum, by tracing its appearance in mammals and primates throughout history.

动物王国里阴茎骨的长度有着如此大的差异，于是科学家开始重建阴茎骨的进化故事，追踪阴茎骨在哺乳动物和灵长类动物身上的演变过程。

They found that the penis bone evolved in mammals more than 95 million years ago and was present in the first primates that emerged about 50 million years ago. From that moment on, the baculum became larger in some animals and smaller in others. The stump-tailed macaque, an animal that weighs only 10kg, has an extremely long baculum for its size, with the bone extending for 5cm. The bone is five times the size of the baculum in the collared mangabey, which is a slightly larger monkey.

他们发现哺乳动物在9500万年前就开始形成阴茎骨，而5000万年前才开始在第一批灵长类动物身上出现。自那以后，有些动物的阴茎骨变大，有些则变小。体重只有10公斤的短尾猴（和自己的体型相比）有着很长的阴茎骨，达到了5厘米，是白眉猴的阴茎骨的五倍，而白眉猴的体型比短尾猴还大。

Kit Opie who led the study at University College London, said that penis bone length was longer in males that engaged in what he called “prolonged intromission.” In plain English, that means that the act of penetration lasts for more than three minutes, a strategy that helps the male impregnate the female while keeping her away from competing males. The penis bone, which attaches at the tip of the penis rather than the base, provides structural support for male animals that engage in prolonged intromission.

伦敦大学学院的研究人员称“持久插入”的雄性拥有更长的阴茎骨，指的是超过3分钟的插入，这种策略既能让雌性更好的怀孕又可以让其他的雄性和雌性保持距离。阴茎骨其实是连接在阴茎的尾端而非基端，为进行持久插入的雄性提供结构性的支持。

In chimps, the penis bone is no longer than a human fingernail. The tininess of the bone correlates with the very short spell that the male spends mating, in the order of seven seconds. In chimpanzee groups, females mate with all the males, in what appears to be a strategy to reduce the risk of her children being killed by older males. “It gives each male an idea that they may have fathered the subsequent offspring, and it is in her interests to get that done quickly,” Opie said.

黑猩猩的阴茎骨还没有人类的指甲长。其阴茎骨这么小，是与雄性交配时间甚短相对应的，大约是7秒钟。在黑猩猩群体中，雌性和所有雄性交配，这种策略是为了降低自己的孩子被更年长雄性杀死的风险。“这会让每只雄性都觉得自己可能是孩子的父亲，所以快速交配是有利于雌性黑猩猩的，”研究人员说。

Humans may have lost their penis bones when monogamy emerged as the dominant reproductive strategy during the time of Homo erectus about 1.9 million years ago, the scientists believe. In monogamous relationships, the male does not need to spend a long time penetrating the female, because she is not likely to be leapt upon by other amorous males. That, at least, is the theory.

科学家认为，在大约190万年前的直立人时期，一夫一妻制开始成为支配性的繁衍战略，人类可能就是在这个时候开始失去自己的阴茎骨。在一夫一妻制的关系中，雄性没必要长时间插入雌性，因为她不太可能被其他雄性插入。至少理论上是如此。

“We think that is when the human baculum would have disappeared because the mating system changed at that point,” Opie said. “This may have been the final nail in the coffin for the already diminished baculum, which was then lost in ancestral humans.” Details of the research are published in Proceedings of the Royal Society.

“我们认为就是在这个时候人类阴茎骨开始消失，因为交配制度开始改变。这可能对业以缩小的阴茎骨造成了致命一击，在人类祖先出现时就就已经没有阴茎骨了。”研究细节发布在《皇家学会报告》上。

“With the reduced competition for mates, you are less likely to need a baculum,” he added. 

“由于交配的竞争压力变小，那么阴茎骨的用处就不大了。”

“Despite what we might want to think, we are actually one of the species that comes in below the three minute cut-off where these things come in handy.”

“尽管我们有点想法，但是我们属于三分钟以下的物种之一，用不着阴茎骨。”

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WillemVermeer 25m ago
You mean, there are animals that, once they have a boner, need a bone to keep it up? Wouldn't this be...erm...uncomfortable? Because, no matter whether intromission takes just a few seconds or several minutes, once it's done, it's done! Keeping a boner doesn't seem to confer any advantage. So, does this "baculum" then retract, or something?

意思是说有些动物需要骨头才能勃起？那不是很不舒服吗？因为不论是几秒钟还是几分钟的插入，做完了就是做完了！所以有个骨头在里面感觉不是一个优势吖。还是说这个阴茎骨会缩回还是咋滴？

John O'Donnell 25m ago
None of this makes sense.

通篇一派胡言。

Tejamedhi 28m ago
I definitely last longer than three minutes. Should I put that in my dating profile or what.

我持续的时间绝对超过3分钟，我应该把这一点加入我的约会资料吗

Chris MacKrell 28m ago
If most human copulation lasts less than three minutes I must be some sort of sex God, since I can go almost twice that!

如果大部分的人类交配都不超过三分钟，我肯定是性神，因为我的持续时间几乎是那个的两倍。

Stuart Parker 31m ago
Isn't the mystery solved by the discovery that the penis bone disappeared at the time of the aptly named homo erectus?

有发现说阴茎骨在直立人时期就消失了，这个谜团不是早就解决了吗？

Usignolo 33m ago
Does this mean we'll have to reclassify homo erectus?

这是否意味着我们得重新分类直立人？

atseyes  Usignolo 27m ago
Homo erectus refers to his ability to walk upright, not his need, or lack of it, for Viagra. :P

直立人指的是直立行走的能力，不是说他需要或者缺乏伟哥。

the_thoughtful_one 34m ago
haha - my wife might complain if I took the full 3 minutes ....

哈哈，如果我插入三分钟那么长，我妻子可能要抱怨了。。。

hillslug 37m ago
Isn't possibly to do with the fact that we're one of the few species to mate face to face and that human females also have bigger breasts than other primates. Oh I forgot, they have a breast bone.

有没有可能是因为我们是少数几个面对面交配的物种之一，而且人类女性的胸部比其他灵长类来的大。哦，我忘了，他们也有胸骨。

RePhraser 40m ago
This study needs to come with a survey of copulation times of modern humans.

这个研究还应该调查一下现代人类的交配时间。