Do humans respect viagra enough? Methinks, not: There is an iguana who now is in danger of having his penis amputated after innocently consuming viagra. Yeow! It's a good thing that iguanas have hemipenes instead of one penis.
Mozart, an iguana with an erection that has lasted for over a week, will have his penis amputated in the next couple of days.
Mozart, sitting on the shoulders of his keeper as camera crews focused on his red, swollen erection, seemed unperturbed by the news.
Cited story.
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GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist has written a blog about science since 4 August 2004 (the early years are archived 




















Comments
Iguanas have penises??? I thought they only had cloacas. Is that common among reptiles?
Posted by: NM | January 25, 2007 9:05 PM
PZ has written an article on Pene Evolution . You might find that helpful.
In any case - I fear GS is half wrong; it seems to me Sildenafil would most likely result in erection of both hemipenes, and the iguana will lose both of them. The reporter probably referred the singular due to confusion.
Posted by: llewelly | January 26, 2007 11:17 PM