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Snakes Have a Clitoris, Reveals Study

Photo provided by Texas’ Grand Prairie Police Department is of a similar West African Branded Cobra snake as part of a reference image for the public.Previously, researchers claim to have mistaken genitalia of female snakes for either scent glands or under-developed ‘versions of penises.’Female snakes have clitorises, a belated study into the animal’s genitalia has confirmed. Whether the slithery, limbless, oft-venomous carnivorous reptiles actually derive pleasure out of this remains an open question, joked Dr Jenna Crowe-Riddell, co-author and postdoctoral researcher in neuroecology at La Trobe University.According to the co-author of the study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, while male snake penises have been detailed at length and won fascination among researchers for the spines, hooks, depressions and such-like adornments of the appendages, the sex organs of their female counterparts were overlooked. Now the research, entitled “First evidence of hemiclitores in snakes”, offers the first complete description of the clitoris (hemiclitores) in female snakes.A “massive taboo around female genitalia” was possibly one of the reasons for this, added the study’s lead author, a PhD student at the University of Adelaide, Megan Folwel.“I think it’s a combination of not knowing what to look for and not wanting to,” she was cited by media as saying.Thieving Snake Stealing Slipper in Its Mouth Leaves Netizens in Stitches25 November, 11:43 GMTPrevious forays into the female snake genitalia research had often mistakenly believed that the organs they did discover during dissection were scent glands or underdeveloped versions of penises. Or, some suggested that the female sex organs were non-existent.However, the new study found that snakes have two individual clitorises, hemiclitores, which are separated by tissue and are snugly concealed by skin on the tail’s underside.“Trying to find it is not always the easiest thing – some are extremely tiny,” Folwell said, who had dissected the clitorises in a death adder, which had a “reasonably prominent hemiclitores.” Furthermore, the hemiclitores was discovered to be comprised of erectile tissue with blood vessels and nerve endings, that “may be indicative of tactile sensitivity, similar to the mammalian clitoris”.The authors of the study have now hypothesized that sex organs “have functional significance in mating” in snakes, while conceding that further research into the behaviour patterns of snakes would be needed to confirm this.The hemiclitores could be responsible for some sort of “stimulation,” signalling for “vaginal relaxation and lubrication,” according to Folwell. As for her co-author, Crowe-Riddel, she quipped:“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?”

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