Ethology A language to communicate with dolphins
Ethology A conversation between dolphins
Female dolphins have a functional clitoris, which plays an important role in generating pleasure during sexual intercourse, just as it does in humans. This is indicated by a study that appears this Monday in the journal
Current Biology
,
whose results are based on the analysis of the structure located at the entrance of the vagina of bottlenose dolphins (
Tursiops truncatus
), which presents a complex network of sensory nerves and erectile bodies.
"The dolphin clitoris has many characteristics that suggest that its biological function is to provide pleasure to females
," explains study first author Patricia Brennan, a professor at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.
The researcher also points out that dolphins are social animals and that they
have sex throughout the year to forge and maintain bonds, not just to reproduce.
The place of the clitoris in the vagina of female dolphins has been found to make stimulation and pleasure during intercourse likely. Likewise, cases of mutual stimulation of the clitoris between two females, with the snout, the fins and the caudal fin (tail), have been documented.
For this study, the team of biologists decided to analyze in detail the clitoris of the dolphins and with this objective they studied eleven specimens that had died naturally, both with autopsies and with 3D scanners. The animals were examined for the presence and configuration of erectile bodies.
"Like the human clitoris, the dolphin has large areas of erectile tissue that fill with blood,"
says Brennan.
The researchers also observed how
nerve fibers traverse these tissues
, whose shape changes when the animals reach adulthood. Specifically, analyzes show that the body of the clitoris has both large nerves and free nerve endings just under the skin, which is much thinner there than adjacent areas.
They also discovered genital corpuscles very similar to those described above on the human clitoris or the tip of the penis, the function of which has been identified as part of the pleasure response.
The author emphasizes the closeness to human beings.
"Since the pelvis of dolphins is very different from that of humans, it was surprising to see how similar these shapes were
," he says.
"The size of the nerves in the body of the clitoris was also very surprising," says the researcher, "some were more than half a millimeter in diameter."
Little researched area
Brennan explains that the idea of studying the clitoris of bottlenose dolphins appeared during a previous study focused on the evolution of the vaginas of this same species.
"Every time we dissected a vagina, we saw the clitoris of a large size and that aroused our curiosity to know if someone had examined it in detail, to find out if it worked like a human clitoris," he says.
"We knew that dolphins have sex not only to reproduce, but also to strengthen social bonds, so it seemed likely that the clitoris could have a certain function."
Two dolphins by Dara Orbach
Researchers recall that the clitoris and female sexual pleasure have hardly been addressed by scientific wildlife studies.
The human clitoris was not fully described until the 1990s
by Australian urologist Helen O'Connell, a work that was instrumental in understanding the shape and function of the clitoris, providing answers to some basic biological questions about sex. In addition, this type of research also has implications in pelvic area surgery, where doctors can apply this knowledge to avoid any loss of sexual function.
"Ignoring the study of female sexuality has left us with an incomplete picture of the true nature of sexual behaviors," notes Brennan.
"Studying and understanding these behaviors in nature is a fundamental part of understanding the animal experience and
may even have important medical applications in the future
."
So the team plans to continue analyzing the clitoris and genitalia of dolphins and many other vertebrates to help spread knowledge in this field.
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