Sex in the Sea: Our Intimate Connection with Kinky Crustaceans, Sex-Changing Fish, Romantic Lobsters, and Other Salty Erotica of the Deep

embodiment

• If there were a penis Olympics, the barnacle would win the decathlon, sporting the world's longest proportional penis—remarkably agile and malleable.

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• The male argonaut amputates his hectocotylus and swims away; his severed love limb must fend for itself in a final wormlike sprint to the female.

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• Vaginas can tell us a whole lot more than just how big a penis is; females manipulate sexual outcomes through behavior and marvelous anatomical innovations.

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desire

• The dismembered epitoke rises in slow spirals toward the surface, its own eyes orienting toward the heavens, spilling gametes among thousands of other severed worm butts.

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• A female sand tiger's uterus is like a gladiator arena; male sand tigers produce 'obscene' amounts of semen—colleagues were slipping on the lab floor.

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transformation

• Synchronized coral spawning ensures right sperm find right eggs; without the precise time lag, distinct species fuse—a lesson learned by manipulating sex with a bucket and garbage bags.

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