You are presented with three objects: a mini-cucumber, a yam, and a tape measure.
The Aquatic Biosphere was invited back to the Telus World of Science Edmonton, for the return of their popular adult-only Dark Matters event, themed the Science of Sex. The sold-out event featured organisations focused on human sexuality,
The Aquatic Biosphere set up in the outstanding "Out of the Depths: the Blue Whale Story" exhibit. At the table, participants were presented with the aforementioned objects and learned about who has the biggest .. male member .. as a proportion of body size. The guessing game under the blue whale skeleton might provide an obvious clue, with a member at 10' long and a foot in diameter, but in Nature, nothing ever is. Sized to human proportions, the Blue Whale is not much larger than an average human's matching part! But the smallest things can hold the largest surprises.
We told nightmare stories of precocious sexual parasitism of the deep sea angler fish (subspecies Ceratidae), sweet stories of sea horses and their dances, and destroyed some childhood memories with the truth about clownfish and gender fluidity in some marine species. Described through graphic hand gestures, California Sea Hares raised eyebrows with their notorious love chains (go sea hares!) and of course an intimate description of coral spawning under a full moon to add a bit more romance to the sharing of knowledge.
The evening flew past quickly with a lot of laughter. We loved meeting and talking with all the guests who came by and hope our participants took some excellent stories back to your friends and coworkers of the evening.
Thank you again to the Telus World Of Science Edmonton for the invitation to participate.
"Out of The Depths: the Blue Whale Story" is now showing, along with the beautiful IMAX film, "Secrets of the Sea". Well worth an afternoon visit. Get your tickets online at: https://www.onlinebookings.edmontonscience.com/Selection.aspx?item=4005
And for those who don't know, the animal with the biggest p3n1s proportionate to body size is ... the barnacle at a whopping 8x its body size!
Links to sexy fish facts:
Coral Spawning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO_2JJynlOA
California Sea Hare Love Chain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFAdts1xUMc
Giant Pacific Octopus Mating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fkQZrfeYXQ&t=3s
Deep Sea Anglerfish Mating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anDIlMVgNwk
Penis Fencing Flatworms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czOIoDbkKQc
Barnacle Mating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfnkFxg1gMw
Blue Whales 101: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgiPTUy2RqI
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