Variation in ovarian morphology in four species of New World moles with a peniform clitoris
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Female moles of the Old World genus Talpa display a curious suite of reproductive features that include a peniform clitoris and ovaries with a discrete interstitial gland or testis-like region (so-called 'ovotestes'). The masculinization of the female external genitalia in Talpa has accordingly been linked with secretion of androgens from the interstitial gland region of the fetal gonad. Although their ovarian morphology has received less attention, some species of New World moles also have ovaries with a pronounced interstitial gland (for example star-nosed mole, Condylura cristata), whereas females of other species do not (for example eastern mole, Scalopus aquaticus). Although it is difficult to determine the sex of both Old and New World moles, published accounts describing the external genitalia of female moles are available only for Talpa. The hypothesis that masculinization of the female external genitalia in moles is associated with the presence of an ovarian interstitial gland (OIG) was tested in the present study by using a comparative approach to determine whether these features are ever found in isolation of one another. Three genera of North American moles (Scapanus, Condylura and Neurotrichus) were studied and a peniform clitoris was found in all three species, but OIG were found in only two of three genera. The ovaries of S. latimanus and S. orarius were unremarkable, with no evidence of a discrete interstitial gland or testis-like region. Mapping these results onto recent talpid phylogenies indicates that loss of the bipolar ovarian morphology is a derived trait in Scapanus, and conclusively demonstrates that masculinization of the external genitalia in female moles can develop in the presence or absence of 'ovotestes'.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".