Seriously?


From an evolutionary standpoint it doesn't even make sense unless you figure that at one time men evolved from women and that our breasts are now just reminants of a non-functioning organ system.


Never let it be said that I don't ask the big questions around here.

Colin, and ONLY Colin, can answer this. Nay, "should" answer this.

This is exactly the reason. We all start as women.

As Mitch Fatel said, "And that is why sometimes I feel so pretty."

They are for women to lick. Duh.

But then if we all started as women, who impregnated the first one?


Suddenly, this God created Adam and Eve thing is looking like a valid explanation of things.

there is no point to them, but there is no disadvantage either so they wont be evolved out of the population

they're just evolutionary remnants like our appendix

and yes, the 'default design' is for embroyos to become female. The presence of one specific gene (SRY) on the Y chromosome in men tells the fetus to grow 'male parts', which doesn't include getting rid of nipples.

you can get some funky things happening with SRY occasionaly, e.g if SRY gets accidently translocated to the X chromosome, you can get XX males.

I think we have some of those XXX males here on Obner.

In the fetus, all children start off as women.

Actually, I don't think this is true. Medical scientists can do chromosomal studies from the aspiration of amniotic fluid and be able to tell whether the emerging fetus is male or female with or without the presence of an appendage.

you need the senator's reading comprehension class

my sister in law = xx male (transsexual)

This is definitely the French answer.


I wonder if I could get a research grant to test this theory out though.


HEY LADIES!!!

nah, transexuals are still genetically women, not men - ie a clone would grow into a woman

LOL. Im sorry you dont think this is true. You are correct, by a chromosomal analysis, a fetus is either male or female from conception. However, the hormonal development is what is key. For instance, the hormone DHT (what causes us to go bald) from the breakdown of testosterone, causes the external male genitalia to develop, etc. This hormone is synthesized by the Y chromosome. Women aint got it, therefore they continue to follow the default. Nipples dont leave, in men, they just dont get stimulated by the correct hormones (progesterone and prolactin) because they dont have them.

heres something else of interest

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgen_i ... mplete_AIS

XY females with internal testes

That's what I remember reading or hearing somewhere before. It's possible that it's wrong. I looked up 'nipples' on Wikipedia and they didn't have any answers.

Is this the title of the next Boards Of Canada album?

This is, I believe, what Tony Curtis' daughter has.

even more vexing: why do I have three nipples?

YOU HAVE THREE NIPPLES?!!



Awesome.

it's not that cool. The third is the size of a tiny mole, and is barely distinguishible. The doctos diagnosed it as a nipple when i was born though, and if you look close enough you can see its a proper nipple

Looks like folks did a pretty good job without me, actually, although we did have a digression into secondary sexual characteristics, et cetera.

While in some other mammals, such as many Rodentia, nipples are sex-linked and repressed in the male development, it seems like with humans, nipple production is autosomal (and not selected against in males), and the sex-linked part is the production (or suppression, it could be either) of the full-fledged mammary glands rather than the nipples themselves.

So why do male humans have nipples? In this case, because there is no reason that natural selection has decided why not. If there is no selective pressure eliminating nipple production in male development, and the nipple production is governed by autosomal genes, males are going to have nipples (but not mammary glands, even though there are undeveloped rudiments of these, as well).

The explanation that we all start off as females is incorrect - a more accurate view would be that human fetuses start off with very generalized plumbing (precursors to either male or female gonadal tissue) and undifferentiated external genitalia. It is the action of the genes expressed differentially due to the heterogametic sex chromosomes that results in the developmental cascades leading to the development of the gonadal tissue, and, 12 or 13 years later, the secondary sexual characteristics.

Good?

Vindication is so sweet.

It is troubling however, that my nipples are apparently useless for their original intention. Maybe I can decorate them and impress the opposite sex.

they are for piercing
and being more badassed

Is there a thread that explains Butt Babies?!?