(Washington) Scientists already knew, dolphins also mate for fun. A new study shows that females have a clitoris made of erectile tissue and acting as a nerve center that could play an important role in sexual stimulation.
Patricia Brennan, specialist in the animal genital system and lead author of this study published in the journal Current Biology, believes that science has long neglected the study of the sexuality of animals, especially females.
“It is however very important to understand our evolution and it could teach us things about our own sexuality”, affirms to AFP this teacher at the American University Mount Holyoke.
Besides primates, dolphins are one of the main species that use sex to create and maintain a social bond. They have sex – including between females and between males – all year round, and the female’s clitoris is placed in such a way that it can be stimulated during the act.
Solitary, they rub against the sand and in groups, some have been observed using their snout or their fins to provide pleasure to others of their congeners.
These behaviors suggest that they enjoy the experience, but the Dr Brennan and her colleagues wanted to dig deeper into the subject and deepen their biological knowledge.
Scientists have studied the clitoris of 11 female dolphins that died naturally, failing to be able to reconstruct sexual relations in the laboratory to analyze their heartbeats or their brain activity.
They discovered a structure of erectile tissue and many blood vessels.
“These tissues become engorged with blood, like a human penis or clitoris,” says Patricia Brennan.
Their shape changes with age, indicating that females use it once they reach sexual maturity.
The female dolphin’s clitoris also has nerve relays that end just under the skin, like the genitals, and its skin is very thin, to accentuate its sensitivity.
Finally, it contains sensory structures called “genital bodies” similar to the human penis or clitoris and whose function is to provide pleasure.
Humans last shared a common ancestor with cetaceans 95 million years ago, making these similarities surprising, unlike those with primates from which we diverged about six million years ago.
Embarrassment
For the Dr Brennan, the absence of this type of research on dolphins or the sexuality of female animals shows that there is some embarrassment within the scientific community and among the public.
But this research is important, she argues, and studies in the past have shown that the chances of success of artificial insemination of heifers and sows increase significantly when their genitals are stimulated.
“You can be uncomfortable thinking that in order to have a steak, someone must have tickled a cow’s clitoris,” she says.
Studying animal sexuality can also help understand human health, she says.
“Many women have difficult sex, related to lack of arousal, pain during the act or an inability to reach orgasm”, and the study of other mammals can shed light on the causes and may – even be providing solutions, she explains.
The fact that women are under-represented in the scientific community may explain why studies of female sexuality are so rare. The human clitoris was therefore not studied in depth until the 1990s.
The next study of Dr Brennan will focus on alpacas, the love ritual of which can sometimes take half an hour, much longer than other camels. She thinks that the male takes the time to stimulate the female’s clitoris, to facilitate mating.