Bird penises start strong, wither away

Male chickens lose phalluses before hatching

Some ducks have penises longer than their bodies, while chickens make do with a tiny bump. The vast size difference between the two types of fowl is due to a wave of cell death during chicken development, researchers report June 6 in Current Biology.

A false-color micrograph shows the rudimentary penis (pink) of a chick embryo before it begins to shrink.