ArticleBMC biology2013
Baculum morphology predicts reproductive success of male house mice under sexual selection.
Article in BMC biology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed.
- Testing for Functional Adaptation in a Genital Bone: Baculum Size, Shape, and Microstructure Show Little Plastic Response to Mating Across Five Rodent Species.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Genetic disruption of the baculum compromises the ability of male mice to copulate.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- Female behavior drives the formation of distinct social structures in C57BL/6J versus wild-derived outbred mice in field enclosures.BMC biology · 2024Article
- Re-wilding model organisms: Opportunities to test causal mechanisms in social determinants of health and aging.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- Baculum shape complexity correlates to metrics of post-copulatory sexual selection in Musteloidea.Journal of morphology · 2023Article
- Naphthenic acid fraction components from oil sands process-affected water from the Athabasca Oil Sands Region impair murine osteoblast differentiation and function.Journal of applied toxicology : JAT · 2022Article
- Gene dosage changes in KCTD13 result in penile and testicular anomalies via diminished androgen receptor function.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2022Article
- Parent-offspring inference in inbred populations.Molecular ecology resources · 2022Article
- Hearing, touching, and multisensory integration during mate choice.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2022Review
- The baculum affects paternity success of first but not second males in house mouse sperm competition.BMC ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Diversification, Introgression, and Rampant Cytonuclear Discordance in Rocky Mountains Chipmunks (Sciuridae: Tamias).Systematic biology · 2021Article
- The ultimate database to (re)set the evolutionary history of primate genital bones.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Of mice and women: advances in mammalian sperm competition with a focus on the female perspective.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Review
- Baculum shape and paternity success in house mice: evidence for genital coevolution.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Postcopulatory sexual selection and the evolution of shape complexity in the carnivoran baculum.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Penis evolution across species: divergence and diversity.Nature reviews. Urology · 2019Review
- Testing hypotheses for the function of the carnivoran baculum using finite-element analysis.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Phenotypic plasticity in genitalia: baculum shape responds to sperm competition risk in house mice.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Patterns of sexual size dimorphism in horseshoe bats: Testing Rensch's rule and potential causes.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- The baubellum is more developmentally and evolutionarily labile than the baculum.Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDiversity in penile morphology is characterised by extraordinary variation in the size and shape of the baculum (penis bone) found in many mammals. Although functionally enigmatic, diversity in baculum form is hypothesised to result from sexual selection. According to this hypothesis, the baculum should influence the outcome of reproductive competition among males within promiscuous mating systems. However, a test of this key prediction is currently lacking.
resultsHere we show that baculum size explains significant variation in the reproductive success of male house mice under competitive conditions. After controlling for body size and other reproductive traits, the width (but not length) of the house mouse baculum predicts both the mean number of offspring sired per litter and total number of offspring sired.
conclusionsBy providing the first evidence linking baculum morphology to male reproductive success, our results support the hypothesis that evolutionary diversity in baculum form is driven by sexual selection.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.