The alligator and its alliesReese, A. M. (Albert Moore)
Science
The alligator and its allies
Reese, A. M. (Albert Moore)
Alligators
The _glans_, e, consists of two parts between which, where they leave
the shaft of the penis, is a funnel-shaped hole, wider towards the free
end of the penis and divided into similar lateral halves by a fold
of skin. The glans is much shorter than the shaft of the penis. The
covering of the penis is much thinner than the mucous membrane of the
cloaca and is thinnest along the groove; it extends from the shaft over
the glans without forming a foreskin.
The base of the penis is attached to the pubis near its symphysis.
With this base the most anterior part of the strong ring-muscle of the
cloaca is closely attached by a fairly large mass of fibrous tissue.
Rathke fails to find any muscles that are concerned alone with the
copulatory organs.
In the copulation of the crocodile, according to Rathke, the penis
is erected, though how this is caused is difficult to say since the
corpora cavernosa consist only of fibrous tissue and the cavernous
tissue lining the groove is very thin. The penis can, therefore,
project only a short distance from the cloaca. The cavernous tissue
is capable of causing only a slight elongation of the shaft, but the
glans is considerably elongated by the strong influx of blood into that
structure. According to Voeltzkow (78) the penis in the Madagascar
crocodile is 20 cm. in length.
The clitoris of the sexually mature female crocodile is very much
smaller than the penis of a male of the same size, but, according to
Rathke, it varies greatly in size in different species. It is built on
exactly the same plan as the penis.
According to Bronn the clitoris as well as the penis projects from the
cloaca, out through the anus, in the embryo of the crocodile; this
was not observed by the present writer in the embryo of the Florida
alligator, _A. mississippiensis_.
CHAPTER VII
THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS
_The Larynx and Trachea._ In the Crocodilia the framework of the larynx
consists of three cartilages, of which two represent the arytenoids of
the Mammalia; the third represents the thyroid and cricoid of mammals.
The last is considerably larger than the first and is a broad closed
ring, differing in form in the different species. In spite of the fact
that some of them have a voice, the vocal cords, according to Bronn,
are wanting in the Crocodilia. According to Henle the vocal apparatus
is produced by the projection into the laryngeal cavity of the inner
border of the small arytenoid cartilages and by the infolding, under
these cartilages, of the mucous membrane of the larynx; this forms the
thick but fairly free folds that, when the glottis is narrowed, are
well adapted to produce the harsh tone of the animal.
The epiglottis is absent in the Crocodilia.
In many Crocodilia (_C. vulgaris_, for example) the trachea, Fig. 57,
tr, forms a loop which begins in some species before hatching, in other
species not until long after hatching. In the genus _Alligator_ the
trachea is straight.
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