The planet is inhabited by living beings due to their reproduction. How does this happen in normal people, everyone knows. But there are people and hermaphrodite animals. Who are they? How hermaphrodites breed, read the article.
Hermaphrodite animals
Vertebrate animals in most cases are born either by females or males. Sex given by nature is preserved. But there are animals throughout whose life the sex changes. This is influenced by external environmental factors such as temperature, water salinity, the time during which light and darkness last, as well as their alternation.
Many fish are hermaphrodites, that is, they simultaneously have signs of both sexes, or change it in the process of their existence. When the sex of an individual changes in turn, it is called sequential hermaphroditism, which is endowed with many species of fish from different families: gubanovy, groupers, parrot fish and many others.
Fry is born by females, but subsequently their sex changes, they become males and their gender does not change anymore. This form of hermaphroditism is called protoginia. However, fry of some species are born by males and never change sex.
Sexual animals have the ability to change marine animals of ancient origin, which include corals. How do hermaphrodites breed? Reproduction methods for corals are different: asexual and sexual. Their gender changes due to temperature exposure. If it rises, the females turn into males. Change the strength of sea cucumbers or holoturia.
But shrimp, on the contrary, are born by males. Only two years later, they change their gender, and live to the end of their lives with females. In the same order as shrimp, the sex of the clown fish changes, only this environment is not affected by the environment. The goal of the process is to optimize the sex ratio of a given population. This replacement of animal sex is called social. In this case, if the female dies, her place is taken by the largest growing male. Factors of an unnatural origin can influence gender change: chemicals, pesticides.
Hermaphrodite - Earthworm
Adult representatives of this animal species are simultaneously endowed with signs, sex cells and glands of both sexes. Such worms are called hermaphrodites. They multiply in the presence of two living organisms, regardless of their gender.
How do hermaphrodites breed? Earthworms multiply in several stages. First, individuals exchange seminal fluid. It is stored in the mucus secreted by special cells of the girdle. When spermatozoa mature, mucus is secreted again, but now a cocoon is formed from it. The worm removes it through the head. When the cocoon moves from the body of the worm, the eggs enter it, which are immediately fertilized by sperm. An earthworm can reproduce not only in the manner described. The fact is that the cocoon contains many viable eggs. Once in the ground, new worms develop in it. At the right time, they exit the cocoon with fully formed worms.
Ways of survival
In cases of complete extermination of the species, earthworms have spare methods that help to survive. How do hermaphrodites breed? Worms have the ability to reproduce without fertilization. Only in this case the population will consist of only females.
Thanks to unique breeding methods, earthworms are common throughout the planet. The only exception is Antarctica, since its soil is under the ice. Worms, living in the ground, make it more fertile. They serve as food for other animals.
Hermaphrodite Serpents
They can be met infrequently in nature. Bright representatives of hermaphrodites among snakes is the species of island botrops, whose habitat is South America. This species has hermaphrodites and ordinary snakes of different sexes.
In nature, there are snakes that breed from the mother's egg, and the male does not take any part in this. This method is called parthenogenesis. For scientists, hermaphrodite snakes are of great interest. And their reproduction methods are interesting: heterosexual, hermaphroditic, and parthenogenetic.
Hermaphrodite snails
How do hermaphrodites breed? To answer this question, you should know that each individual has genital organs of the female and male principle. Adult snails change sex, often to female. Propagate every year. Mating readiness is determined by behavior. The snail begins to crawl slowly, with frequent stops halfway and long waiting times with the raised front of the body.
When two snails with this behavior meet, love games begin between them, and after them - the act of fertilization. In different species of snails, it lasts an uneven time. At a grape snail, for example, a few minutes. How are hermaphrodites breeding? After mating has occurred, individuals exchange spermatophores for a long time. When the exchange ends, they creep.
Hermaphrodite people
They have sexual characteristics of masculine and feminine. But, most often they produce sex hormones of only one type: male or female. Such hermaphroditism is called false. Its true variant is practically not found among people, since in such hermaphrodites the body is able to produce sex hormones male and female. Among animals, this phenomenon is widespread, this applies to mammals, mollusks, amphibians.
Hermaphrodites are false
The appearance of such people is associated with a genetic mutation. Moreover, a person is endowed with sexual characteristics of a man and a woman. However, the body is able to produce hormones of only one kind. Similar genetic abnormalities in humans are much more common.
The prevalence of this phenomenon remains a mystery, as people with such abnormalities are reluctant to openly even with doctors. They do not like the constant ridicule of society, although the person himself is not to blame for what happened. He cannot cope with hermaphroditism on his own. How are hermaphrodites humans? Thanks to modern scientific knowledge, such people can eliminate cosmetic defects through surgery, live a full life and even give birth to children.
If false hermaphroditism is observed in men, the structure of their genitals is similar to the structure of women. This was due to abnormal development of the fetus inside the womb. A hermaphrodite is taken at the hospital as a girl. But over time, the fatal mistake clears up, and this also inflicts psychological suffering on the person.
For a person, the phenomenon of hermaphroditism is an incident. To date, medicine has not been able to investigate this phenomenon, there are only some references to people with such abnormalities.