Yes, we have found the clitor-hiss. By that, we mean researchers from La Trobe University, University of Adelaide and University of Michigan Museum of Zoology have completed a world-first anatomical description of the clitoris in female snakes.
Known as the hemiclitores, the snake clitoris, the scientists say, is an important piece in understanding the species’ sexual reproduction.
Just like the human female’s clitoris, female genitalia of vertebrates like snakes and lizards are conspicuously overlooked in comparison to their male counterparts.
“It opens up new questions about the dynamics of snake mating and initiates new conversations about a whole other side of the story that we’ve been missing, which is the female anatomy,” co-author of the study and Postdoctoral Researcher in Neuroecology at La Trobe University Dr Jenna Crowe-Riddell said.
“When [Megan Folwell, PhD student researcher] asked the question, it occurred to us that scientists have never thought to do this. So that’s why we looked into some of the cells that underlie it and found red blood cells and nerves that are consistent with erectile tissue – all the hallmarks of the clitoris.”
Crowe-Riddell noted that this research is filling in missing gaps. She said that, for example, in anatomy textbook, there is detailed drawings of the male genitalia, yet for the female genitalia, a whole part of it is missing, essentially.
Now they’ve mapped the snake clitoris, the plan is to look at other species of snakes and how they mate, (this could be through coercion or it could be seduction).
“Because one thing’s for sure is that the hemipenes are incredibly variable, genitalia just evolves super quickly across animals and snakes are no exception,” she added.
“Now we’ve got this anatomy, we can kind of flip the coercion assumption and say, well it could be seduction and that just hasn’t really been considered that much for snakes. It’s definitely considered for mammals. I think snakes have been left behind because they’re scaly and a bit, bit weird, honestly.”
Work on the anatomical description of the snake clitoris has been detailed in the study First evidence of hemiclitores in snakes, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.