Hermaphrodite is an organism in which a single individual has both male and female gametes. Many plants and some animals are naturally hermaphroditic and can self-fertilize and reproduce themselves from a single organism. (Omoto & Lurquin, 2004, p. 209) While some species actually reproduce asexually, such as single celled organisms and other creatures, this is not the same as being hermaphrodite. There are benefits to the species in some sense in being able to self-fertilize and reproduce in this way. Sexual reproduction in effects cuts the population's growth rate in half. Only females produce offspring, not males. If half the population is male, then the speed of population growth is half that of an all-female population. An all-female species can quickly out produce a male/female species, allowing an all-female species to survive in high mortality habitats where a male/female species can't succeed. This result is also true in hermaphrodite species, in which the fifty-fifty allocation of reproductive effort to male and female function reduces the female allocation used to make eggs by half. (Roughgarden, 2004) A single organism that makes both small and large gametes at some point in life is called a hermaphrodite. An individual who makes both sizes at the same time is a simultaneous hermaphrodite, and one who makes them at different times is a sequential hermaphrodite. Most flowering plants are simultaneous hermaphrodites because they make pollen and seeds at the same time. Pollen is the male part of a plant and the ovule is the female part....
A pollinated ovule turns into a tiny embryo that detaches, to be blown away by the wind or carried away by an animal. Among animals, hermaphrodism is common in the ocean. Most marine invertebrates, such as barnacles, snails, starfish, fan worms, and sea anemones, are hermaphroditic. Many fish are as well. (Roughgarden, 2004)
Organism Physiology The Planarian or "cross-eyed flatworm" is a relatively simple invertebrate organism, belonging to the animal kingdom and the phylum of Platyhelminthes which covers all flatworms. The phylum of Platyhelminthes contains four separate classes: three of these cover parasitic forms of flatworm that live inside other organisms (like the famous tapeworm). The fourth class, Turbellaria, includes all non-parasitic flatworms. One of these is the Planarian, which exists in a number
Noncoding DNA, also known as "junk DNA" describes portions of the DNA sequence that do not appear to have any presentable use -- they do not encode for proteins, etc. In fact, in a most eukaryote cells, a rather large percentage of the total genome is noncoding DNA, but this varies between species. However, it is now a misnomer to call this material "junk," because the more sophisticated we become
Phyla and Parasites Ten Phyla: Phylum Mollusca ~ Living Species Number: World: at least 50,000; United States: Approximately 20,000; Texas: More than 2,000; Number of Fossil Forms: 150,000 Phylum Brachiopoda ~ Living Species Number: World: 400; United States: 80; Texas: 10; Number of Fossil Forms: 5,000 Phylum Echinodermata ~ Living Species Number: World: 7,000; United States: Approximately 2,000; Texas: Approximately 200; Number of Fossil Forms: 13,000 Phylum Chordata ~ Living Species Number: World: More than 60,000; United States:
Evolutionary biologists have agreed that sex is essential to evolutionary longevity, however they cannot agree why (Milius, 2000). Rotifers seem to be another fly in their ointment. In the end, researchers have found that nearly identical pairs of genes were found in rotifers that reproduced sexually (nonbdelloid). This result was expected for sexually reproducing diploids. However, these identical genes were not found in bdelloids. "Even the most similar copies found
In fact, I think I'll just keep eating for a while, I'm not feeling quite full yet. There, that did it. Did I mention there's a whole bunch of us hanging out in here? Well, it seems there were quite a few of us in that fish our human ate, and we've all taken up residence here. Some of us are in the intestines, but most of us are just
Interaction Hormones Behavior, Interactions Affect Determination Gender Identity There are two important distinctions to be drawn, the biological determination of a human being's sex and the gender identity. The former cannot be denied as it is manifest and the complete distinction between a male and female in terms of organs and biological build up is manifest. The perception of an individual regarding who 'he' or 'she' is being defined as 'gender
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