Female snakes have a clitoris with Australian scientists making world-first discovery
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An Australian student dissecting a female death adder makes an astonishing, world-first discovery after realizing that a strange heart-shaped muscle on her tail was actually her clitoris.
- A clitoris has been found in female snakes, disproving a theory that it does not exist
- Scientists from La Trobe University and the University of Adelaide co-wrote a study
- The hemiclitores, the name given to the snakes, were found on the tails of the females.
- The discovery dispels myths that only male snakes enjoyed sexual pleasure.
- Scientists Discovered Functional Clitoris Reveals More About Snake Mating
- Details can be accessed via Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal
A clitoris has been discovered in female snakes, upending a long-standing scientific consensus that only males could find pleasure in sex.
Scientists from Melbourne’s La Trobe University, the University of Adelaide and the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology published the world’s first “complete description” of the female reproductive organ on Thursday.
PhD student Megan Folwell, who led the research, made the discovery after dissecting the tail of a female death adder, finding a heart-shaped muscle.
The findings surpassed the limited research available on the sexual organs of female snakes compared to the series of studies already done on males.
There was a consensus among scientists that female snakes had no arousal capabilities and that mating in snakes was largely a matter of males coercing the females, where seduction fizzled out.
The findings substantiated the limited research available on the reproductive organ of the female snake, compared to many more studies done on male reptiles.
The scientists then looked further and found erectile tissue in the structure that was filled with red blood cells and nerve tissue (pictured, the clitoris of an Australian death adder).
But Jenna Crowe-Riddell, a postdoctoral researcher in neuroecology at La Trobe University, said there was a “crucial piece of anatomy missing from this conversation.”
“Our finding suggests that female arousal, and something more like seduction, may play a role,” said the study’s co-author.
‘We still have a lot to learn. It may turn out that variation in the clitoris between species correlates with courtship and mating behaviors, and helps us understand how females choose a mate.
“When you open an anatomy textbook and imagine you have a detailed drawing of the male genitalia, the female genitalia is essentially missing a whole part.
‘So we’re filling in that missing spot.’
The findings began when doctoral student Megan Folwell came across the heart-shaped structure (pictured) inside the female’s tail while dissecting snake specimens.
The discovery of functional hemiclitores, the word used to describe a snake’s clitoris, has paved the way for scientists to understand the mating habits of snakes.
Male snakes and lizards have two ‘hemipenes’, tubular structures with a groove through which semen can flow, under their scales.
Ms. Fowell, who is still a student, was dissecting snakes when she saw the bundle of nerves.
“Throughout the animal kingdom, female genitalia are overlooked compared to their male counterparts,” Ms Fowell said.
The female clitoris in snakes has been difficult to study because it is not accessible outside the body, but Ms Folwell discovered that it was located between two scent glands.
The scientists then looked further and found erectile tissue in the structure that was filled with red blood cells and nerve tissue.
Ms Crowe-Riddell said the discovery showed that it can swell and become stimulated during snake courtship.
The scientists examined nine different species of snakes and found that they all had clitorises, although their sizes and shapes varied.
The anatomical description of the snake clitoris can be accessed in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.