The

blue whale The blue whale (''Balaenoptera musculus'') is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of and weighing up to , it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can ...

penis is the largest in the animal kingdom. It is commonly cited as having an average penis length of to and a diameter of to .

Morphology

The reported average penis length varies but is usually mentioned to have an average length of . The most common reported average length is roughly but the average diameter is only , making the penis proportionately very long and thin. However, its girth has also been reported to be nearer , with a single ejaculation estimated to be about , based on the size of its

testes A testicle or testis (plural testes) is the male reproductive gland or gonad in all bilaterians, including humans. It is homologous to the female ovary. The functions of the testes are to produce both sperm and androgens, primarily testoster ...

each weighing . "Average" for a blue whale

penis A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males do n ...

, however, is difficult to gauge given that the penis is unlikely to be able to be measured during sexual intercourse. The penis of the blue whale is normally hidden inside its body and jets out through a

genital slit A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...

during intercourse. They are stated to be tough and fibrous (more than in any other

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

). It is believed that it uses the elasticity of this tissue to get an erection and not from any blood flow, though this

hypothesis A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous obse ...

has not been confirmed by any scientific study.

Scientific studies

With whales, the length of the penis can be an indication of the maturity of the organism.

Sei whale The sei whale ( , ; ''Balaenoptera borealis'') is a baleen whale, the third-largest rorqual after the blue whale and the fin whale. It inhabits most oceans and adjoining seas, and prefers deep offshore waters. It avoids polar and tropical ...

s for instance are divided into categories such as immature, pubertal and mature. However, length is not the only factor as it is recorded in relation to the size of the whale's testes and its

histology Histology, also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology which studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at larger structures vis ...

. For instance, research conducted off South Africa found that the longest penis of an immature categorized whale was and the smallest penis of a mature whale was . By comparison the average blue whale penis is nearly 3 times the size of that of a sei whale. Specimen measurements indicate that a blue whale measuring in length had a

vestigial Vestigiality is the retention, during the process of evolution, of genetically determined structures or attributes that have lost some or all of the ancestral function in a given species. Assessment of the vestigiality must generally rely on co ...

mammary slit of width and length, with a penis measurement of . In another specimen in which the length of the whale was and weighed 50.9

metric tons The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United States ...

, the brain weighed only .

Largest specimen

The Icelandic Phallological Museum has a portion of a blue whale's penis measuring long and weighing , which ''Iceland Review'' has dubbed "a real Moby Dick". The specimen is just the tip, as the entire organ, when intact, would have been about long and weighed about , well above average for even a blue whale. By comparison, an adult elephant's penis is the largest penis of any land animal at on average.

References

External links

Photograph of the carcass of a 60 ft sperm whale in Taiwan, penis still intact

Art of Angling by Richard Brookes, 1781, page 294: Penis of the Whale
{{Authority control Mammal penis Cetacean anatomy Blue whales

Morphology

Scientific studies

Largest specimen

See also

References

Further reading

External links