9/10/2023 0 Comments Dolphin vagina shapes![]() “Are they going to find the same kind of anatomy in species that are more solitary or open-ocean or deep-diving?” Dr. Mesnick both suggested the need for comparative research between other species of cetaceans. “Their bodies are so different from us, and their faces are so different from ours,” Dr. The physiological signs of pleasure associated with humans and other primates - vocalizing, grimacing, rolling eyes and panting - may look totally different in a dolphin. He added that more research was needed to prove the hypothesis.īut it is no easy feat to study dolphin sex experimentally in a lab, or in the wild. These observations provide “some nice suggestive evidence” that female dolphins feel pleasure responses to tactile stimulation, said Brian Langerhans, an evolutionary biologist at North Carolina State University, who was not involved with the research. And the clitoral skin itself was a third of the thickness of neighboring genital skin, making it much easier to stimulate. The CT scanner showed the clitoral tissue contained unusually large nerves - up to half a millimeter in diameter - and abundant free nerve endings just under the skin, increasing sensitivity. And the clitoris changed shape as the dolphins reached adulthood, suggesting it has a function related to sexual maturity. They also found a band of connective tissue surrounding the erectile tissue, which ensures the clitoris could engorge and keep its shape. Their examination revealed a number of signs of a functional clitoris, including erectile tissue that could become turgid with blood. “But looking at the reproductive anatomy, we’re learning that they have all sorts of cryptic ways to control paternity.The researchers dissected the clitorises of 11 common bottlenose dolphins and ran tissue samples through a micro CT scanner. “It might appear behaviorally that females are very passive,” Orbach told New Scientist. This allows the female to obstruct a penis from penetrating her, which seemingly gives her some choice in the mating process. In the common porpoise and bottlenose dolphin, they found that the females had an extra fold on the outside of their vagina. They took CT scans of the penises inserted into the vaginas to figure out how they fit. Then they inflated the penises with saline to simulate an erection and compared them with silicone molds of the dolphin vaginas. Three-dimensional model fit of male (red) inside female (blue) genitalia. They detached the genitals from common and bottlenose dolphins, common porpoises and common seals, removing the vaginal opening, clitoris, cervix and ovaries from the females and the “penis tip and the entire shaft through to the pelvic bone,” from the males, according to Orbach. So Orbach and her co-authors collected dead dolphins - all of which had died of natural causes - to figure out how dolphins mate. Researchers also know that dolphin and cetacean penises come in a ton of different shapes and sizes, but knew little about cetacean vaginas. These packs then surround a female and take their turns – giving the female little to no choice on who gets her pregnant. What researchers do know is that when male bottlenose dolphins are looking to mate, they form packs of two to four dolphins in order to fight off any competitors. “I’ve done several of them, so I can tell you.” “There are very few studies of the mating behavior of cetaceans because of these challenges,” Dara Orbach, an author of the study, told Motherboard. Patricia Brennan, one of the study’s co-authors, makes a silicone mold of the dolphin’s genitals. They live far from shore, in the middle of the ocean and are always on the move, making it hard for researchers to observe them for very long, let alone catch them having sex. Scientists have long had trouble figuring out how dolphins - or cetaceans in general - get it on. Their findings were published in Proceedings of the Royal Society. Researchers looked at an array of dolphin species to figure out how they have sex and found that bottlenose dolphins and common porpoises have genitalia that’s evolved to act as a barrier to unwanted fertilization. Some female dolphins have vaginas that bat away unwelcome penises, according to a new study.
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