Now That They've Actually Looked, Scientists Discover Snakes Have Two Clitorises

The clitoris has had a big year.

Scientists discovered bottlenose dolphins have large clitoris that are better for pleasure than ours.

Researchers realized last month that they had underestimated the female sex organ when a study showed more than ten thousand nerve endings.

The sex organ in female snakes is the equivalent of the sex organ in males.

The layers of female snake genitalia were removed using a variety of techniques.

Female snakes have two hemiclitores that form a triangular structure that is different in size and shape.

The structure was completely different to the hemipenes and the surrounding tissue. The presence of nerve fibers was astounding.

You could wonder how snake hemiclitores have been missed, given scientists' interest in the sex organs of reptiles.

Female snake reproductive parts don't come out like hemipenes. The hemiclitores of snakes lack the muscles that allow them to be pulled out of the body.

They aren't adorned with hooks like male parts are. In some snake species, the hemiclitores were small. It was easy to see that others occupied most of the anterior tail area.

There were some key differences that made snake hemiclitores different. Under the microscope, the Australian death adder ( Acanthophis antarcticus) had hemiclitores that were packed with blood cells and nerves, but without the spine of a man.

Other studies have suggested that the hemiclitores are not underdeveloped and that they have functional significance in the bedroom.

The hemiclitores engorge with blood, and the presence of abundant nerve bundles, suggest that their stimulation may provide sensory feedback to the females.

It suggests snakes might use sensory stimulation to entice a mate, rather than males coercing females into sex as scientists thought was the case. As reptiles do, hemiclitores can be used to send signals to store sperm in the oviduct.

The scientific neglect of the female clitoris is one of the reasons we don't know a lot. The neglect has delayed our understanding of reproductive biology and behavior of females in nature.

Studies of female genitalia in lizards and snakes have been rare before.

The reptilian clitoris is thought to be a remnant of an organ lost to evolution or a poor imitation of a male. Hemiclitores were cast as "miniaturized mirror images of the hemipenes of the males" when they were first described in 1995.

A stimulatory role for male snakes has been suggested by biologists.

There's a lot to know about this under studied organ. The different shapes and sizes of snake hemiclitores led to their development into specialized organs.

"We can now look into more what the function of this structure is and what is driving this evolution of the clitoris across species."

The study was published in a peer reviewed journal.