Cartilage in the penis
Baculum of a dog's penis ; the arrow shows the urethral sulcus, which is the groove in which the urethra lies.
Fossil baculum of a bear (Indarctos ) from the Miocene
The baculum (pl. : bacula ), also known as the penis bone , penile bone , os penis , os genitale ,[ 1] or os priapi ,[ 2] is a bone in the penis of many placental mammals . It is absent from the human penis , but present in the penises of some primates , such as the gorilla and the chimpanzee .[ 3] [ 4] The baculum arises from primordial cells in soft tissues of the penis, and its formation is largely influenced by androgens .[ 5] The bone lies above the urethra ,[ 6] and it aids sexual reproduction by maintaining stiffness during sexual penetration . The homologue to the baculum in female mammals is the baubellum (os clitoridis ), a bone in the clitoris .[ 7] [ 8] [ 9]
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^ Dollé, P.; Izpistia-Belmonte, J.-C.=; Brown, J.M.; Tickle, C.; Duboule, D. (1991). "HOX-4 genes and the morphogenesis of mammalian genitalia" (PDF) . Genes & Development . 5 (10): 1767–1776. doi :10.1101/gad.5.10.1767 . PMID 1680771 . S2CID 6307427 . Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 July 2018.
^ Dixson, Alan F. (26 January 2012). Primate Sexuality: Comparative Studies of the Prosimians, Monkeys, Apes, and Humans . OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-150342-9 . Archived from the original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved 13 February 2018 .
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^ Nasoori, Alireza (2020). "Formation, structure, and function of extra-skeletal bones in mammals" . Biological Reviews . 95 (4): 986–1019. doi :10.1111/brv.12597 . PMID 32338826 . S2CID 216556342 .
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^ Best, Troy L.; Granai, Nancy J. (2 December 1994). "Tamius merriami" (PDF) . Mammalian Species (476): 1–9. doi :10.2307/3504203 . JSTOR 3504203 . S2CID 253909941 . Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 June 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2010 .
^ Burrows, Harold (1945). Biological Actions of Sex Hormones . Cambridge University Press. p. 264. ISBN 9780521043946 . Archived from the original on 21 October 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2012 .
^ Ewer, R. F. (1973). The Carnivores . Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-8493-3 . Archived from the original on 28 May 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2012 .