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Polyfuckery t1_j066x7d wrote

Interesting. I realize this sounds bad but to what benefit? Snakes are not known for social sex play like bonobos or dolphins. They don't tend to be known for masterbation. My parrots do. My reptiles don't. Most snakes, I am aware there are exceptions, don't have anything to do with eggs once laid and they don't pair bond. In fact they can retain sperm so encouragement to remain with a partner doesn't exist. It seems like an odd thing for a reptile to maintain.

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destroyer551 t1_j06jjgk wrote

Snakes actually are known for their elaborate sex lives. Courtship across the entire suborder is typically a lengthy affair with great effort displayed by the males and it usually involves lots of chin-rubbing, quivering, coiling, parallel slithering, and jerking movements. Pelvic spurs are even used to tactically stimulate females in the primitive families that still retain evidence of their hind limbs. Courtship can last hours, even weeks in some species, and the act of copulation itself can be an equally lengthy affair.

A nerve-filled clitoris is fairly likely to have arisen (and like the courtship behaviors, may actually be rather ancestral to all modern snakes) due to sexual selection by females. Competition between males can be fierce and it is quite common among the group for multiple males to congregate and compete directly for access to just one female.

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MarginalOmnivore t1_j0686xw wrote

If it's not detrimental, there's no reason for it to be selected against. So, unless growing the structure of a clitoris is more-than-negligibly energy and/or nutrition demanding than growing not-clitoris, it's probably gonna stick around.

Also, if female snakes' hemiclitores are analogous to male snakes' hemipenes (that is, a base structure that develops differently for each gender), they're probably more likely to stay.

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