You might have seen a snake's tongue, but it's not the only one. Male snakes have genitals that look a bit like pink cacti and often have to match them.
Good enough for him is good enough for her in the sub order. The first proper scientific description of the bifurcated clitoris in female snakes was provided in a paper published Wednesday. The bias in biology that has left female sexual anatomy woefully under studied is challenged by the study.
According to the study, snakes have hemiclitores, but the organs are also capable of serving a reproductive function and are not merely vestigial.
The assumption that snake sex is coercive could be challenged if the presence of a functional clitoris is confirmed.
Megan Folwell, a PhD candidate at the University ofAdelaide in Australia, is an author of the study. It's possible that the males are doing something that makes the females more interested in participating.
There were reams of publications that described the shapes and sizes of snake hemipenes, but little mention of female sex organs. All mammals, lizards, and birds have clitoris structures. She found a few papers that didn't offer a description of their body parts.
The female death adder's tail was going to be examined. The hemiclitores stared at her as she removed the muscle and tissue from the snake.
The find was so shocking that Dr. Brennan almost fell out of her chair.
The researchers used multiple techniques to examine the anatomy of eight other species of snakes from four families.
The analyses established the snake hemiclitore's credentials.
Kurt Schwenk, a herpetologist at the University of Connecticut who didn't participate in the research, said that it was logical that snake hemiclitores would be there.
The cantil viper has the largest hemiclitor at 1.2 inches long and 0.7 inches wide, while the Guatemalan milk snake is just 0.1 inches long and 0.06 inches wide.
There is no reason for hemiclitores to be different across species if they are nonfunctional.
According to Marvalee Wake, an evolutionary morphologist at the University of California, Berkeley who was not involved in the study, the inference that the hemiclitores were functional seemed reasonable.
The next steps for this research will include investigating the types and locations of nerves present in the hemiclitores and then trying to establish what roles the structures may play during sex. Many snakes engage in behaviors that look like they are having sex.
Dr. Brennan said that the discovery could change the way we understand snake sex.
In lizards, investigations of the clitoris' function have been hampered by cultural attitudes.
The researcher who was not involved in the study said thatDarwin described females as coy and passive participants in sexual selection. The Victorian gender notions influenced Darwin and have been with him ever since.
In an extreme example of a male-centered point of view, Dr. Brennan said that one study of lizard hemiclitores suggested that their function might be to help the male get pregnant.
Dr. Ah- King said, "Now that more researchers are exploring the female side of things we get to know more of the details of what's really there." The research shows how bringing in more perspectives can give us a more complete picture of reality.
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