Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Edifici ICP, Campus de la UAB s/n, Barcelona, Spain ; Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC, Madrid, Spain.
PLoS One. 2013 Sep 18;8(9):e73711. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073711. eCollection 2013.
The fossil bacula, or os penis, constitutes a rare subject of study due to its scarcity in the fossil record. In the present paper we describe five bacula attributed to the bear Indarctos arctoides Depéret, 1895 from the Batallones-3 site (Madrid Basin, Spain). Both the length and morphology of this fossil bacula enabled us to make interpretative approaches to a series of ecological and ethological characters of this bear. Thus, we suggest that I. arctoides could have had prolonged periods of intromission and/or maintenance of intromission during the post-ejaculatory intervals, a multi-male mating system and large home range sizes and/or lower population density. Its size might also have helped females to choose from among the available males.
化石阴茎骨，或 os penis，由于其在化石记录中的稀缺性，成为一个罕见的研究对象。在本文中，我们描述了五个属于熊 Indarctos arctoides Depéret, 1895 的阴茎骨，这些阴茎骨来自于西班牙马德里盆地的 Batallones-3 遗址。这个化石阴茎骨的长度和形态使我们能够对这种熊的一系列生态和行为特征进行解释性的研究。因此，我们认为 I. arctoides 可能在射精后间隔期间有长时间的插入和/或维持插入、多雄交配系统、大的家域范围和/或低的种群密度。它的大小也可能帮助雌性在可用的雄性中进行选择。
