Snakes have a clitoris

December 14, 2022 10:01 PM

Snakes have a clitoris: scientists overcome a massive taboo around female genitalia. Scientists say previous research mistook the organs on female snakes as scent glands or under-developed versions of penises
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (22 comments total)

You go snurrl
posted by The otter lady at 10:03 PM on December 14, 2022 [18 favorites]

This is definitely a thing that I'm aware of now.
posted by rhizome at 10:27 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Hurray!
posted by solarion at 10:57 PM on December 14, 2022

That slivering must feel goooooood
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 12:02 AM on December 15, 2022 [2 favorites]

I am just so gosh-darned happy for snakes right now.
posted by la glaneuse at 12:20 AM on December 15, 2022 [7 favorites]

So, like, it's pretty universal that researchers don't know what a clitoris is or how to research it?

If anyone reading this is doing research papers about a living organism you can study : maybe just focus all your research on the clitoris, since apparently no one else is bothering to do so.
posted by revmitcz at 12:32 AM on December 15, 2022 [13 favorites]

“Female genitalia are conspicuously overlooked in comparison to their male counterparts, limiting our understanding of sexual reproduction across vertebrate lineages,” the study’s authors wrote.

Would it be presumptuous of me to assume that most herpetologists are men?
posted by AlSweigart at 2:34 AM on December 15, 2022 [3 favorites]

Santa got my letter!
posted by adept256 at 4:16 AM on December 15, 2022 [19 favorites]

“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?” Crowe-Riddel said. “I think it’s worth opening up those questions for snakes.”

It's amazing how many facts we failed to learn over the past 150 years because Victorian men thought that female sexual pleasure was evolutionarily pointless and/or nonexistent (and, by extension, though they wouldn't say it out loud as often, that rape was exactly the same as consensual sex in evolutionary terms).
posted by clawsoon at 4:22 AM on December 15, 2022 [4 favorites]

Full study, appears to be open-access.
posted by clawsoon at 4:28 AM on December 15, 2022 [2 favorites]

Snakes have a clitoris

Is there a vertebrate species that wouldn't? Seems like a pretty basic part of that body plan.
posted by flabdablet at 5:22 AM on December 15, 2022

Is there a vertebrate species that wouldn't? Seems like a pretty basic part of that body plan

Until recently, it was thought to be limited to mammals
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 5:27 AM on December 15, 2022 [4 favorites]

flabdablet: it's worth noting that in more than 90% of bird species, males don't have a penis—and the penis and clitoris both develop from the ambisexual genital tubercule in human and other mammalian embryos (source).

Mind you, birds are just plain weird (and don't get me started on Muscovy Ducks).
posted by cstross at 6:04 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

Snakes have a clitoris

and Zero at the bone.
posted by chavenet at 6:13 AM on December 15, 2022 [4 favorites]

I think we can guess what the forbidden knowledge was that the snake whispered to Eve.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:23 AM on December 15, 2022 [33 favorites]

@flabdablet
Is there a vertebrate species that wouldn't? Seems like a pretty basic part of that body plan.

You would be mistaken on both of these points.

The Guardian misreports: female snakes do not have a clitoris. Female snakes have pairs of hemiclitores. The evolution of these organs is completely separate from that of the mammalian clitoris. The organs develop from different embryonic tissues. Only mammals have penes and clitores.

This does not detract from the point that herpetologists were quick to recognize that the hemiepenes of squamates are analogous to the mammalian penis, but not so quick to note the correspondence between the squamate hemiclitoris and the mammalian clitoris.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 6:58 AM on December 15, 2022 [8 favorites]

Snakes have a clitoris

and Zero at the bone.

What does this mean?
posted by tiny frying pan at 8:54 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

AHHH This is the nature news I love.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 9:12 AM on December 15, 2022

Snakes have a clitoris

It's pronounced "clitorissssssssssssssss."
posted by kirkaracha at 9:14 AM on December 15, 2022 [4 favorites]

And zero at the bone is the final line from the poem Snake by Emily Dickinson

Let's all just take a moment to be thankful that it was a joke based on a poem about a snake rather than the usual Metafilter tradition of riffing on This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams
posted by metaphorever at 9:25 AM on December 15, 2022 [6 favorites]

Let's just say that this explains several relationships that I've been in.
posted by Splunge at 9:59 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

"Snakes have happier lives than we thought."
"That's good!"
"This means snakes are more likely to have sex and make baby snakes."
"That's bad."
"More baby snakes improves ecosystem diversity."
"That's good!"
"The ecosystem is laced with potassium sorbate."
...
"That's bad."
"Can I go now?"
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 10:44 AM on December 15, 2022 [4 favorites]