Anyone in the room thought about sex today? (Laughter) Yeah, you did. Thank you for putting your hand up over there. Well, I'm here to provide you with some biological validation for your sordid daydreams. I'm here to tell you a few things that you might not have known about wild sex.
在座的各位今天有没有想到过性? (笑声) 哈哈,的确如此 谢谢你们把手举起来 在这里我为大家 不堪的白日梦 提供一些生物验证 我要告诉你们一些事 你不知道的有关野生动物的性生活
Now, when humans think about sex, male and female forms are generally what come to mind, but for many millions of years, such specific categories didn't even exist. Sex was a mere fusion of bodies or a trickle of DNA shared between two or more beings. It wasn't until about 500 million years ago that we start to see structures akin to a penis or a thing that gives DNA out, and a vagina, something that receives it. Now invariably, you're probably thinking about what belongs to our own species, these very familiar structures, but the diversity that we see in sexual structures in the animal kingdom that has evolved in response to the multitude of factors surrounding reproduction is pretty mind-blowing.
当人类想到性的时候 男人和女人的形式 这通常是他们首先想到的 但上百万年来 这样细致的分类从没存在过 性是多个生物体之间的 一种身体结合 或是DNA的产生 直到5亿年后 我们才开始研究阴茎的结构 产生DNA的物质 阴道,以及 毫无疑问,你们或许在想 什么是属于我们的物种 这种为人熟知的结构 但是在动物界 性别结构的多样性已经进化到 可以应对环境繁殖 所带来的多种因素 这的确令人振奋不已
Penile diversity is especially profuse. So this is a paper nautilus. It's a close relative of squid and octopus, and males have a hectocotylus. Just what is a hectocotylus? A detachable, swimming penis. It leaves the [body of the male], finds the female through pheromonal cues in the water, attaches itself to her body and deposits the sperm. For many decades, biologists actually felt that the hectocotylus was a separate organism altogether. Now, the tapir is a mammal from South America. And the tapir has a prehensile penis. It actually has a level of dexterity in its penis much akin to what we have with our hands. And it uses this dexterity to bypass the vagina altogether and deposit sperm directly into the female's uterus, not to mention it's a pretty good size. The biggest penis in the animal kingdom, however, is not that of the tapir. The biggest penis-to-body-size ratio in the animal kingdom actually belongs to the meager beach barnacle, and this video is actually showing you what the human penis would look like if it were the same size as that of a barnacle. (Laughter) Mm-hm. (Laughter)
阴茎的多样性随处可见 这是船艄(一种软体动物) 是鱿鱼和章鱼的近亲 公船艄会有一个交接腕 那什么是交接腕? 一种可拆分的、会游动的阴茎 它会离开公船艄的躯体 通过水中的信息素线索找到异性 把自己吸附在异性身上 储存精子 几十年来,生物学家一直认为 交接腕是一个完全分离的生物体 貘是一种南美的哺乳动物 它有一个可以盘卷东西的阴茎 这个阴茎很灵活 非常类似于我们的手 它运用这种灵活性 可以迂回阴道 直接把精子储存在异性的子宫里 更别说这是一个非常大的阴茎 动物界最大的阴茎 却不是貘的阴茎 动物界最悬殊的 阴茎身体比例 是看上去可怜巴巴的海滩藤壶 这个视频向我们展示了 如果人类的阴茎也这么大的话 会是什么样子 (笑声) 嗯嗯 (笑声)
So with all of this diversity in structure, one might think, then, that penises are fitting neatly into vaginas all over the place for the purposes of successful reproduction. Simply insert part A into slot B, and we should all be good to go. But of course, that doesn't exactly happen, and that's because we can't just take form into account. We have to think about function as well, and when it comes to sex, function relates to the contributions made by the gametes, or the sperm and the eggs. And these contributions are far from equal. Eggs are very expensive to make, so it makes sense for females to be very choosy about who she shares them with. Sperm, on the other hand, is abundant and cheap, so it makes more sense for males to have a more-sex-is-better strategy when it comes to siring members of future generations.
鉴于结构的多样性 有人会想 为了能够成功地繁衍后代 阴茎必须得很齐整地进入阴道 如果仅仅是把A插入B槽口 那就好办多了 当然,这不太可能会发生 因为我们不能仅仅只将形状大小考虑进去 还得考虑功能的问题 当提及性的时候 功能与配子或精子和卵子做出的贡献 密不可分 但他们所做的贡献并不是对等的 卵子并不容易产生 这使得雌性在和谁分享卵子的事上 非常挑剔 另一方面,精子很多,显得廉价 这使得雄性 在考虑繁衍下一代时 需要拿出 性越多越好的策略
So how do animals cope with these very incongruent needs between the sexes? I mean, if a female doesn't choose a particular male, or if she has the ability to store sperm and she simply has enough, then it makes more sense for her to spend her time doing other biologically relevant things: avoiding predators, taking care of offspring, gathering and ingesting food. This is, of course, bad news for any male who has yet to make a deposit in her sperm bank, and this sets the scene for some pretty drastic strategies for successful fertilization. This is bedbug sex, and it's aptly termed traumatic insemination. Males have a spiked, barbed penis that they literally stab into the female, and they don't stab it anywhere near her vagina. They stab it anywhere in her body, and the sperm simply migrates through her hemolymph to her ovaries. If a female gets too many stab wounds, or if a stab wound happens to become infected, she can actually die from it.
那么动物是如何应对 两性间这种不平衡的需求? 我的意思是,如果雌性不局限于某个特定的同伴 或是她有能力储存精子 并且拥有的量已足 那么她会做些 其它生物活动 躲避捕食者,培育下一代 采集和消化食物 这对那些还没把精子储存到 雌性身体的雄性来说确实不是什么好事 为了能够成功授精 雄性们不得不使出一些策略 这是臭虫在做爱 这被恰如其分地称为创伤性授精 雄性有一个尖尖的类似倒钩的阴茎 他们通常直接插入雌性身体中 而且并不刺入阴茎附近 雄性把阴茎很随意地刺入雌性身体 因此精子只是通过 她的血淋巴进入卵巢 如果雌性的刺伤很多 或是这些刺伤受到感染的话 她可能会因此死去
Now if you've ever been out for a nice, peaceful walk by the lake and happened to see some ducks having sex, you've undoubtedly been alarmed, because it looks like gang rape. And quite frankly, that's exactly what it is. A group of males will grab a female, hold her down, and ballistically ejaculate their spiral-shaped penis into her corkscrew-shaped vagina over and over and over again. From flaccid to ejaculation in less than a second. Now the female actually gets the last laugh, though, because she can actually manipulate her posture so as to allow the sperm of certain suitors better access to her ovaries.
如果你在湖边 悠闲自乐地散步 看到鸭子们做爱 你一定会感到很震惊 因为这看起来像群奸 老实说,事实的确如此 一大群雄性会抓住一个雌性 把她按下去 然后不停地用自己螺旋状的阴茎 向雌性同一形状的阴道射入精子 一遍又一遍 从一开始的疲软无力道后来的持续射精,这中间的过程不超过一秒 但是雌性会赢得最后的胜利 因为她可以转变自己的境况 选择那些适宜的精子 进入自己的卵巢
Now, I like to share stories like this with my audiences because, yeah, we humans, we tend to think sex, sex is fun, sex is good, there's romance, and there's orgasm. But orgasm didn't actually evolve until about 65 million years ago with the advent of mammals. But some animals had it going on quite a bit before that. There are some more primitive ways of pleasing one's partner.
现在我要和你们分享一些故事 因为,我们人类 总是认为性很好,性充满着乐趣 充满着浪漫,充满着性高潮 但直到6500万年后 性高潮才随着哺乳动物的出现 有所发展 但是有些动物在此之前就有所变化 有一些颇为原始的 取悦异性的方法
Earwig males have either really large penile appendages or really small ones. It's a very simple genetically inherited trait and the males are not otherwise any different. Those that have long penile appendages are not bigger or stronger or otherwise any different at all. So going back to our biological minds, then, we might think that females should choose to have sex with the guys that have the shorter appendages, because she can use her time for other things: avoiding predators, taking care of young, finding and ingesting food. But biologists have repeatedly observed that females choose to have sex with the males that have the long appendages. Why do they do this? Well, according to the biological literature, "During copulation, the genitalia of certain males may elicit more favorable female responses through superior mechanical or stimulatory interaction with the female reproductive tract." Mm-hm.
雄性蠼螋的阴茎下部 要么很大 要么很小 这是一种非常简单的基因遗传特性 其他方面,雄性没有任何差别 那些有着长长的阴茎下部的雄性 看上去并不比其它的高大 或是有着其它的不同 根据生物理念 我们或许认为雌性应当选择 和那些阴茎下部比较小的雄性做爱 这样她可以有更多的时间做其它事 躲避捕食者,照顾下一代 收集和消化食物 但是生物学家多次注意到 雌性会选择 和那些阴茎下部较长的雄性做爱 她们为什么这么做呢? 好吧,根据一些生物学方面的专著 “在交配过程中 通过一些机械的或是刺激性的交互作用 一些雄性的生殖器会运用雌性生殖系统 使她们产生更为愉悦的反应。” 嗯嗯
These are Mexican guppies, and what you see on their upper maxilla is an outgrowth of epidermal filaments, and these filaments basically form a fish mustache, if you will. Now males have been observed to prod the female's genital opening prior to copulating with her, and in what I have lovingly termed the Magnum, P.I. hypothesis, females are overwhelmingly more likely to be found with males that have these fish mustaches. A little guppy porn for you right there.
这是墨西哥古比鱼 你们可以从它们的上颌骨 看到一个表皮细丝的分支 这些细丝形成了 一个鱼须 我们已经注意到 雄性会在交欢前 把阴茎刺入雌性的生殖口 我喜欢把它命名为“夏威夷神探假设” (《夏威夷神探》是美国的一部电视剧) 雌性会更喜欢和那些有鱼须的雄性 蹲在一起 这是一个古比鱼的性爱录像
So we've seen very different strategies that males are using when it comes to winning a female partner. We've seen a coercion strategy in which sexual structures are used in a forceful way to basically make a female have sex. We've also seen a titillation strategy where males are actually pleasing their female partners into choosing them as a sex partner. Now unfortunately, in the animal kingdom, it's the coercion strategy that we see time and time again. It's very common in many phyla, from invertebrates to avian species, mammals, and, of course, even in primates.
为了赢得一个异性伴侣 雄性会使用 多种策略 我们知道有一种强制策略使得性以一种强迫的方式 与雌性发生关系 还有一种取悦策略 雄性会 通过讨好异性 来赢得她们的芳心 不幸的是,在动物界 强制策略 最为常见 在各个物种中都可以看到 比如无脊椎动物、鸟类 哺乳动物,甚至在灵长类也很常见
Now interestingly, there are a few mammalian species in which females have evolved specialized genitalia that doesn't allow for sexual coercion to take place. Female elephants and female hyenas have a penile clitoris, or an enlarged clitoral tissue that hangs externally, much like a penis, and in fact it's very difficult to sex these animals by merely looking at their external morphology. So before a male can insert his penis into a female's vagina, she has to take this penile clitoris and basically inside-out it in her own body. I mean, imagine putting a penis into another penis. It's simply not going to happen unless the female is on board with the action. Now, even more interesting is the fact that elephant and hyena societies are entirely matriarchal: they're run by females, groups of females, sisters, aunts and offspring, and when young males attain sexual maturity, they're turfed out of the group. In hyena societies, adult males are actually the lowest on the social scale. They can take part in a kill only after everybody else, including the offspring. So it seems that when you take the penis power away from a male, you take away all the social power he has.
有趣的是,在一些哺乳类物种中 雌性进化出一些特定的生殖器 使得性强迫无法发生 母大象和母鬣狗 有一个勃起的阴蒂 或是一个外挂的扩大的阴蒂组织 很像阴茎 其实很难仅仅从外在区分 这些动物的性别 因此一个雄性在把自己的阴茎插入雄性的卵巢前 雌性会把自己勃起的阴蒂 伸出体外 你可以想象,把一个阴茎放在另一个上面 这事不太可能发生 除非雌性同意 更为有趣的是 大象界和鬣狗界 是一个母系社会 它们有一群雌性带领着 姐妹,姑姑阿姨,以及她们的子孙 当年轻的雄性性发育成熟后 就会被驱逐出群体 在鬣狗界 成年雄性的地位最低 在猎杀中,他们总是排在最后 甚至不如自己的后代 由此可见,如果雄性 没有了阴茎 他就什么社会能力都没了
So what are my take-home messages from my talk today? Well, sex is just so much more than insert part A into slot B and hope that the offspring run around everywhere. The sexual strategies and reproductive structures that we see in the animal kingdom basically dictate how males and females will react to each other, which then dictates how populations and societies form and evolve.
那么今天我要告诉大家什么呢? 性不只仅仅是 把A插入B槽口 然后子孙满堂 我们在动物界 看到的性策略和生殖结构 告诉我们两性是如何相互作用的 也告诉我们人口和社会 如何形成并演变的
So it may not be surprising to any of you that animals, including ourselves, spend a good amount of time thinking about sex, but what might surprise you is the extent to which so many other aspects of their lives and our lives are influenced by it.
所以动物,包括我们自己 花费很多时间想着性的问题 一点不足为奇 但让你们感到惊讶的是 性会在多大程度上 影响我们以及它们生活的方方面面
So thank you, and happy daydreaming.
谢谢你们。做个好梦!
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