The Science Life Animals

In marine mammals’ battle of the sexes, vaginal folds can make the difference

Patricia Brennan has made a splash with her studies of genitalia and fit

harbor porpoise

FERTILE FOLDS In harbor porpoises (one shown), females have vaginal folds (3-D endocast shown below) that may help them exert control over fertilization.

Solvin Zankl/Alamy Stock Photo

By Lesley Evans Ogden

- More than 2 years ago

The battle of the sexes, at least among certain ocean mammals, may come down to well-placed skin folds, suggests research by Patricia Brennan, an evolutionary biologist at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass.,