Correlative 3D-Imaging of Pipistrellus Penis Micromorphology: Validating Quantitative MicroCT Images with Undecalcified Serial Ground Section Histomorphology ...

• Main Authors: Herdina, Anna Nele, Plenk, Hanns, Benda, Petr, Lina, Peter H. C., Herzig‐Straschil, Barbara, Hilgers, Helge, Metscher, Brian D.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2015
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Mammalia; Chiroptera; Chordata; Animalia; bats; bat; The ''Y''; Pipistrellus pipistrellus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13456281; https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.13456281

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Detailed knowledge of histomorphology is a prerequisite for the understanding of function, variation, and development. In bats, as in other mammals, penis and baculum morphology are important in species discrimination and phylogenetic studies. In this study, nondestructive 3D-microtomographic (microCT, mCT) images of bacula and iodine-stained penes of Pipistrellus pipistrellus were correlated with light microscopic images from undecalcified surface-stained ground sections of three of these penes of P. pipistrellus (1 juvenile). The results were then compared with mCTimages of bacula of P. pygmaeus, P. hanaki, and P. nathusii. The Y-shaped baculum in all studied Pipistrellus species has a proximal base with two clubshaped branches, a long slender shaft, and a forked distal tip. The branches contain a medullary cavity of variable size, which tapers into a central canal of variable length in the proximal baculum shaft. Both are surrounded by a lamellar and a ...