Returning to the topic of snakes and their hemipenes

I have time to blog again, can you tell? :)

Since my last post about male snake anatomy (see here), I've come across another article from Michigan Daily innocously titled "Study asserts snakes have body side preferences".

Although snakes have no hands, they have hemipenes that can function as limbs.

Robert Mason and Mike LeMaster of OSU studied more than 400 garter snakes that they found dead from suffocation in Manitoba, Canada.

The scientists weighed the snakes and measured their internal and external organs. They found that garter snakes tended to have larger hemipenes, kidneys and testes on the right side.

OSU researchers used the unexpected size differences in the data they found to form the hypothesis that garter snakes use the right hemipenes more than the left, and that the male is more likely to use his right-side than his left in certain circumstances.

The scientists are yet to find any practical applications for their research but think that it might help in future research of human hand-preferences.
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