![]() ![]() Here, the researchers also saw genital corpuscles - specially encapsulated nerve endings that are found on the human clitoris and penis tip and play a pivotal role in the pleasure response.ĭolphin sex was already thought to carry out functions beyond making babies as these animals will get it on year-long and appear to use sex as a way of maintaining social bonds. The tissue was blessed with chonky nerves, some half a millimeter in diameter, with free nerve endings sitting just beneath the thin layer of skin. Sure enough, a closer look showed the clitoris was rich in sensory nerves and erectile bodies. If mating is fun it's more likely to take place, providing an evolutionary motivation for pleasurable private parts. ![]() ![]() An early indicator that the clitoris was indeed a center of pleasure was its position within the vaginal entrance that would likely lead to stimulation during mating. To answer the Big Question, they gathered samples from deceased female dolphins and took a closer look at the clitoral tissue. “We knew that dolphins have sex not just to reproduce, but also to solidify social bonds, so it seemed likely that the clitoris could be functional.” 10.1016/j.cub.2021.11.020 ( About DOIs).“Every time we dissected a vagina, we would see this very large clitoris, and we were curious whether anyone had examined it in detail to see if it worked like a human clitoris,” said first author Patricia Brennan, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, in a statement. There is a lot to learn about understanding female pleasure in nature."ĭOI: Current Biology, 2022. "We really don't know anything about the evolutionary history of the clitoris. "These are all wide-open questions," said Brennan. Or perhaps, like bonobos, it's a way of reinforcing social bonds among females. But it's also possible that stimulation of the clitoris could help females differentiate between potential mates, choosing those males most able to give them pleasure. The obvious evolutionary advantage for a functional clitoris is that, if females enjoy sex, they will seek it out more and hence reproduce more. "Are turtles having fun when they're having sex? I would like to know." "The fact that there are all these free nerve endings right under the skin, and the skin of the clitoris is about a third of the thickness of the adjacent skin of the genital slit, suggests they're trying to maximize that sensory stimulation," said Brennan, adding that the next step is to study the morphology of the clitoris in other animal species. ![]() Finally, the authors observed much thinner skin in that region compared to elsewhere on the dolphin body. There are many large nerves, as big as half a diameter in size, right under the dermal papilla, which are folds under the skin that are critical for maximum sensitivity. She also noted structures that resemble genital corpuscles (which exist solely for pleasure) in the human clitoris. Her hypothesis is that, when the tissue engorges, the S shaped clitoris also engorges and straightens as a functional response. "What happens is those tissues are surrounded by a band of connective tissue that keeps the shape, even as the tissue engorges, so it doesn't bulge out." By comparing the shape of the tissue in calves, juveniles, and adult female dolphins, she determined that it becomes S-shaped with sexual maturity. "We're calling it spongy tissue," said Brennan. Instead, female dolphins appear to have a secondary type of erectile tissue, although this would require early development studies to confirm. What dolphins don't have is the equivalent of the vestibular bulbs surrounding the human vagina, which are integral to sexual pleasure in women. In human females, this so-called "cavernosum" tissue has long arms that connect to the pelvis and merge in the middle of the clitoris female dolphins show a similar structure. The erectile tissue in the dolphin clitoris is very similar to that found in a male dolphin's penis, and there is evidence (such as lots of vascularization) that it becomes similarly engorged with blood during arousal, according to Brennan. ![]()
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