Female snakes have clitorises, scientists have detailed for the primary time in a examine of the animal’s intercourse organs.
The scientists say earlier analysis had mistaken the organs as scent glands or underdeveloped variations of penises, in a examine that criticised the comparatively restricted analysis into female intercourse organs.
In a examine revealed within the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers discovered that snakes have two particular person clitorises – hemiclitores – separated by tissue and hidden by pores and skin on the underside of the tail.
“Female genitalia are conspicuously overlooked in comparison to their male counterparts, limiting our understanding of sexual reproduction across vertebrate lineages,” the examine’s authors wrote.
Male snakes and lizards are recognized to have hemipenes – a pair of penises that are everted outdoors the physique throughout copy. In many species, hemipenes are coated in spines or hooks.
The examine’s lead writer and a PhD pupil on the University of Adelaide, Megan Folwell, stated “a massive taboo around female genitalia” was a potential think about why snake clitorises had not been described earlier. “I think it’s a combination of not knowing what to look for and not wanting to,” she stated.
“Trying to find it is not always the easiest thing – some are extremely tiny,” Folwell stated. She first dissected the clitorises in a loss of life adder, during which the organ varieties a triangle form “like a heart”.
“I was fortunate that the death adder had a reasonably prominent hemiclitores,” Folwell stated.
The examine means that the intercourse organs “have functional significance in mating” in snakes. Though extra analysis into snake behaviour is required, Folwell stated the crew theorised the hemiclitores “could provide some sort of stimulation signalling for vaginal relaxation and lubrication, which would aid the female in copulation potentially prevent damage from those big hemipene hooks and spines during mating”.
“It could also be signalling to the ovaries to ovulate and to the oviduct to potentially prepare for sperm storage,” she added.
The researchers went on to dissect 10 snakes of 9 species, together with the carpet python, puff adder and Mexican moccasin.
“Some of the clitorises are quite muscular and large – in say vipers – but then they’re really thin, stretched out and small in some other snakes,” stated Dr Jenna Crowe-Riddell, examine co-author and postdoctoral researcher in neuroecology at La Trobe University. Sizes ranged from lower than a millimetre to seven millimetres.
The examine discovered the hemiclitores are comprised of erectile tissue that doubtless swell with blood, in addition to nerve bundles which “may be indicative of tactile sensitivity, similar to the mammalian clitoris”.
“Now that we know that this is here, we know what it looks like, we know there’s erectile tissue with nerves – we can’t help but think: why wouldn’t this be for pleasure?” Crowe-Riddel stated. “I think it’s worth opening up those questions for snakes.”
The examine comes after a analysis summary introduced within the United States earlier this yr stated that the human clitoris has between 9,850-1,100 nerve fibres – about 20% greater than the beforehand broadly cited variety of 8,000, which reportedly got here from analysis carried out on cows.
– with AFP
