The prickly (and largely unknown) sex life of bats

BBC Earth “Why some male bats have spines on their penises”

In my Evolution of Sex class we talk a lot about sperm competition, so spiky penises are nothing new to me. But I was not aware that bats had spined penises of such diversity. And I find it really interesting that because bat behavior is so difficult to observe, we really have no idea why bat penises have spines. That the leading hypotheses vary so much — from copulatory aid to instrument of sperm competition — shows how little we know about the vagaries of bat sex.

I was also not aware of the many reproductive adaptations that female bats possess. Storing sperm and delaying fertilization or embryo development are common strategies of insects, but this is the first mammal I have heard of that possesses this sort of reproductive flexibility.