Abstract
The fossil bacula, or os penis, constitutes a rare subject of study due to its scarcity in the fossil record. In the present paper we describe five bacula attributed to the bear Indarctos arctoides Depéret, 1895 from the Batallones-3 site (Madrid Basin, Spain). Both the length and morphology of this fossil bacula enabled us to make interpretative approaches to a series of ecological and ethological characters of this bear. Thus, we suggest that I. arctoides could have had prolonged periods of intromission and/or maintenance of intromission during the post-ejaculatory intervals, a multi-male mating system and large home range sizes and/or lower population density. Its size might also have helped females to choose from among the available males.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
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Animals
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Body Size
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Extinction, Biological
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Female
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Fossils*
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Genetic Fitness
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Homing Behavior / physiology
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Male
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Organ Size / physiology
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Penis / anatomy & histology*
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Penis / physiology
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Population Density
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Reproduction / physiology*
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Sexual Behavior, Animal*
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Spain
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Ursidae / anatomy & histology*
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Ursidae / physiology
Grants and funding
This study was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (research project CGL2011-25754 and CGL2011-28681) and the research group BSCH-UCM910607. AV was supported by a JAE-Predoc 2011 (CSIC program “Junta para la ampliación de estudios”), co-funded by the European Social Fund. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.