ARE snakes right-handed? That鈥檚 a tough one, given that they don鈥檛 have
limbs. But another pair of appendages鈥攈emipenes鈥攕uggest they
are.
Richard Shine of the University of Sydney and his colleagues there and at
Oregon State University examined red-sided garter snakes. The males have two
separate reproductive systems, each of which includes a hemipenis, testes, ducts
and parts of the kidney.
The team found that the right-hand ensemble was significantly larger than
that on the left. While the snakes didn鈥檛 use the right-side penis more often,
it did produce a larger gelatinous 鈥渕ating plug鈥�, which might extend the time
before a female can mate again, they say (Behavioural Ecology, vol 11,
p 411).
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