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Reproduction in male marsupials

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Book cover The Biology of Marsupials

Part of the book series: Studies in Biology, Economy and Society

Abstract

For as long as marsupials have been known, the female has always excited more scientific interest than the male, and many of the early accounts of marsupials concerned themselves only with the female (see Hartmann, 1952). Nevertheless, the male marsupial has many features of interest and there is an extensive literature dating back to Cowper (1704). In this review I have endeavoured to describe aspects of reproductive physiology of the male marsupial where some advances have been made recently or where the situation in the marsupial is of particular interest. Structure of the mature spermatozoa, anatomy of the penis and seasonal patterns of reproduction have not been included.

Dr B. P. Setchell is a graduate of the universities of Sydney and Cambridge. Formerly a Veterinary Research Officer with the New South Wales Department of Agriculture and a Research Scientist with the C.S.I.R.O. division of Animal Physiology, he is now a Senior Principal Research Officer in the Biochemistry Department of the Agricultural Research Council Institute of Animal Physiology, Babraham. His main research interests are in the physiology, biochemistry and endocrinology of the testis, oxidative metabolism of organs in vivo and comparative aspects of male reproduction.

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Authors
  1. Dr B. P. Setchell
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science, University of Bradford, England

    Bernard Stonehouse

  2. Department of Physiology, University of Glasgow, Scotland

    Desmond Gilmore

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© 1977 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Setchell, B.P. (1977). Reproduction in male marsupials. In: Stonehouse, B., Gilmore, D. (eds) The Biology of Marsupials. Studies in Biology, Economy and Society. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02721-7_24

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