15 hermaphrodites and how they reproduce
Hermaphrodism is a very striking reproductive strategy because it is present in some vertebrates, being a rare event, sows many doubts around it, to help solve these doubts, in this article of Animal Expert, you will understand why some animal species have developed this behavior.. You will also see examples of.
- The first thing to keep in mind when talking about different reproductive strategies is that cross fertilization is what all organisms look for.
- Self-fertilization is an available resource for hermaphrodites.
- But that is not their goal.
To better explain the reproduction of hermaphrodite animals, you should be very clear in some terms:
In cross-fertilization, there is greater genetic variability, as genetic information from two animals is combined.Self-infectation causes two gametes to mix with the same genetic information, resulting in an identical individual.With this combination, there is no possibility of genetic improvement and the offspring tend to be weaker.This breeding strategy is generally used by groups of animals with slow locomotion, so it is more difficult to find other individuals of the same species.Let’s contextualize a situation with an example of a hermaphrodite animal:
I hope that with this example you can understand what animals are hermaphroditis and how it is a tool to double the chances of cross fertilization and not a tool of self-fertilization.
Below we will show you a list of hermaphrodite animals, with several examples to better understand this type of reproduction:
They have both sexes at the same time and therefore throughout their life they develop both reproductive systems, when two worms mate, they are both fertilized and then lay a bag of eggs.
Like earthworms, they are permanent hermaphrodites
They are usually younger males and middle-aged females.
They also have sex and, currently, the Aquaculture Institute of the University of Santiago de Compostela is studying the factors that induce sex change. The image shows a scallop in which you can see the goada. Goonada is the “bag” that contains gametes.In this case, half is orange and half whitish, and this differentiation of colors corresponds to a sexual differentiation, varying at every moment of the life of the organism, this being another example of hermaphrodite animal.
One of the most popular hermaphrodites in the world. Normally, they develop the male gender in the juvenile phases and pass to the female at maturity, they can also have an asexual reproduction, which occurs when one of their arms is broken carrying part of the center of the star.The star that has lost the arm will regenerate it and the arm will regenerate the rest of the body.This results in two identical individuals.
Their internal parasitic state makes reproduction difficult with another organism, so tapeworms often resort to self-fertilization, but when they have the opportunity they prefer cross-fertilization.
It is estimated that about 2% of fish species are hermaphrodites, but since most live in the deepest layers of the ocean, their study is very complicated, in the coastal reefs of Panama we have a particular case of hermaphrodism, Serranus tortugarum, a fish with both sexes developed at the same time and alternating sexual relations with the couple up to 20 times a day.
There is another case of hermaphrodism in some fish, sex change for social reasons, this occurs in fish that inhabit a colony, consisting of a larger dominant male and a group of females.When the male dies, the larger female takes on the dominant role of the female.male sex and it induces gender change. These small fish are some examples of hermaphrodites:
This behavior also occurs in guppy or bedonant fish, which are very common in aquariums.
Some species of frogs, such as the African arboreal frog (Xenopus laevis), are male during the juvenile stages and become females in adulthood.
Commercial atrazine-based herbicides are changing frog sex faster.An experiment conducted at the University of Berkeley, California, found that when men are exposed to low concentrations of this substance, 75% of them are chemically sterilized and 10% pass directly to women.
In addition to the above species, they are also part of the list of
Find out which are the 10 slowest animals in the world in this Animal Expert article.
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