sex

sex
/seks/, n.
1. either the male or female division of a species, esp. as differentiated with reference to the reproductive functions.
2. the sum of the structural and functional differences by which the male and female are distinguished, or the phenomena or behavior dependent on these differences.
3. the instinct or attraction drawing one sex toward another, or its manifestation in life and conduct.
4. coitus.
5. genitalia.
6. to have sex, to engage in sexual intercourse.
v.t.
7. to ascertain the sex of, esp. of newly-hatched chicks.
8. sex up, Informal.
a. to arouse sexually: The only intent of that show was to sex up the audience.
b. to increase the appeal of; to make more interesting, attractive, or exciting: We've decided to sex up the movie with some battle scenes.
[1350-1400; ME < L sexus, perh. akin to secare to divide (see SECTION)]
/seks/, adj. Latin.
six.

* * *

Sum of features by which a member of a plant or animal species can be placed into one of two complementary reproductive groups, male or female.

In both plants and animals, sex is determined by the reproductive cells (gametes) produced by the organism. The male produces sperm cells, and the female produces egg cells. Males and females may or may not have apparent structural differences, but they always have functional, hormonal, and chromosomal differences. Patterns of behaviour, sometimes elaborate, may also distinguish the sexes in some species. See also reproductive behaviour.

* * *

Introduction

      the sum of features by which members of species can be divided into two groups—male and female—that complement each other reproductively.

      Sex, sexuality, and reproduction are all closely woven into the fabric of living things. All relate to the propagation of the race and the survival of the species. Yet there can be sex without sexuality, and reproduction need not be sexual, although for most forms of life sexual reproduction is essential for both propagation and long-term survival.

Sexual and nonsexual reproduction
      Because the life span of all individual forms of life, from microbes to man, is limited, the first concern of any particular population is to produce successors. This is reproduction, pure and simple. Among lower animals and plants it may be accomplished without involving eggs and sperm. Ferns (fern), for example, shed millions of microscopic, nonsexual spores, which are capable of growing into new plants if they settle in a suitable environment. Many higher plants also reproduce by nonsexual means. Bulbs bud off new bulbs from the side. Certain jellyfish, sea anemones, marine worms, and other lowly creatures bud off parts of the body during one season or another, each thereby giving rise to populations of new, though identical, individuals. At the microscopic level, single-celled organisms reproduce continually by growing and dividing successively to give rise to enormous populations of mostly identical descendants. All such reproduction depends on the capacity of cells to grow and divide, which is a basic property of life. In the case of most animals, however, particularly the higher forms, reproduction by nonsexual means is apparently incompatible with the structural complexity and activity of the individual.

      Although nonsexual reproduction is exploited by some creatures to produce very large populations under certain circumstances, it is of limited value in terms of providing the variability necessary for adaptive advantages. Such so-called vegetative forms of reproduction, whether of animals or plants, result in individuals that are genetically identical with the parent. If some adverse environmental change should occur, all would be equally affected and none might survive (extinction). At the best, therefore, nonsexual reproduction can be a valuable and perhaps an essential means of propagation, but it does not exclude the need for sexual reproduction.

      Sexual reproduction not only takes care of the need for replacement of individuals within a population but gives rise to populations better suited to survive under changing circumstances. In effect it is a kind of double assurance that the race or species will persist for an indefinite time. The great difference between the two types of reproduction is that individual organisms resulting from nonsexual reproduction have but a single parent and are essentially alike, whereas those resulting from sexual reproduction have two parents and are never exact replicas of either. Sexual reproduction thus introduces a variability, in addition to its propagative function. Both types of reproduction represent the capacity of individual cells to develop into whole organisms, given suitable circumstances. Sex is therefore something that has been combined with this primary function and is responsible for the capacity of a race to adapt to new environmental conditions.

Sex cells (gamete)
      The term sex is variously employed. In the broad sense it includes everything from the sex cells (cell) to sexual behaviour. Primary sex, which is generally all that distinguishes one kind of individual from another in the case of many lower animals, denotes the capacity of the reproductive gland, or gonad, to produce either sperm cells or eggs or both. If only sperm cells are produced, the reproductive gland is a testis, and the primary sex of the tissue and the individual possessing it is male. If only eggs are produced, the reproductive gland is an ovary, and the primary sex is female. If the gland produces both sperm and eggs, either simultaneously or successively, the condition is known as hermaphroditic (hermaphroditism). An individual, therefore, is male or female or hermaphrodite primarily according to the nature of the gonad.

      As a rule, male and female complement each other at all levels of organization: as sex cells; as individuals with either testes or ovaries; and as individuals with anatomical, physiological, and behavioral differences associated with the complemental roles they play during the whole reproductive process. The role of the male individual is to deliver sperm cells in enormous numbers in the right place and at the right time to fertilize (fertilization) eggs of female individuals of the same species. The role of the female individual is to deliver or otherwise offer eggs capable of being fertilized under precise circumstances. In the case of hermaphrodite organisms, animal or plant, various devices are employed to ensure cross-fertilization, or cross-pollination, so that full advantage of double parentage is obtained. The basic requirement of sexual reproduction is that reproductive cells of different parentage come together and fuse in pairs. Such cells will be genetically different to a significant degree, and it is this feature that is essential to the long-term well-being of the race. The other sexual distinctions, between the two types of sex cell and between two individuals of different sex, are secondary differences connected with ways and means of attaining the end.

Sexuality: complementary mating types
      The complementarity of both male and female sex cells and male and female individuals is a form of division of labour. Male sex cells are usually motile cells capable of swimming through liquid, either freshwater, seawater, or body fluids, and they contribute the male cell nucleus but little else to the fertilization (sperm) process. The female cell also contributes its nucleus, together with a large mass of cell substance necessary for later growth and development following fertilization. The female cell, however, is without any capacity for independent movement.

      In other words, small male cells (sperm cells, spermatozoa, or male gametes) are burdened with the task of reaching a female cell ( egg, ovum, or female gamete), which is relatively large and awaits fertilization. A full complement of genes is contributed by both nuclei, representing contributions by both parents, but, apart from the nucleus, only the egg is equipped or prepared to undergo development to form a new organism. A comparable division of labour is seen in the distinction between male and female individuals. The male possesses testes and whatever accessory structures may be necessary for spawning or delivery of the sperm, and the female possesses ovaries and what may be needed to facilitate shedding the eggs or to nurture developing young. Accordingly there is the basic sex, which depends on the kind of sex gland present, and sexuality, which depends on the different structures, functions, and activities associated with the sex glands.

The adaptive (adaptation) significance of sex
      When two reproductive cells from somewhat unlike parents come together and fuse, the resulting product of development is never exactly the same as either parent. On the other hand, when new individuals, plant or animal, develop from cuttings, buds, or body fragments, they are exactly like their respective parents, as much alike as identical twins. Any major change in environmental circumstances (natural selection) might exterminate a race since all could be equally affected. When eggs and sperm unite, they initiate development and also establish genetic diversity among the population. This diversity is truly the spice of life and one of the secrets of its success; sex is necessary to its accomplishment.

      In each union of egg and sperm, a complete set of chromosomes is contributed by each cell to the nucleus of the fertilized egg. Consequently, every cell in the body inherits the double set of chromosomes and genes derived from the two parental cells. Every time a cell divides, each daughter cell receives exact copies of the original two sets of chromosomes. The process is known as mitosis. Accordingly, any fragment of tissue has the same genetic constitution as the body as a whole and therefore inevitably gives rise to an identical individual if it becomes separated and is able to grow and develop. Only in the case of the tissue that produces the sex cells do cells divide differently, and genetic differences occur as a result.

      During the ripening of the sex cells, both male and female, cell divisions (known as meiosis) occur that result in each sperm and egg cell having only a single set of chromosomes. In each case the set of chromosomes is complete—i.e., one chromosome of each kind—but each such set is, in effect, drawn haphazardly from the two sets present in the original cells. In other words, the single set of chromosomes present in the nucleus of any particular sperm or egg, while complete in number and kinds, is a mixture, some chromosomes having come from the set originally contributed by the male parent and some from the female. Each reproductive cell, of either sex, therefore contains a set of chromosomes different in genetic detail from that of every other reproductive cell. When these in turn combine to form fertilized eggs or fertile seeds, the double set of chromosomes characteristic of tissue cells is reestablished, but the genetic constitution of all such cells in the new individual will be the same as that of the fertilized egg—two complete sets of genes, randomly derived from sets contributed by the two different parents. Variation is thus established in two steps. The first is during the ripening of the sex cells, when each sperm or egg receives a single set of chromosomes of mixed ancestry. None of these cells will have exactly the same combination of genes characteristic of the respective parent. The second step occurs at fertilization, when the pair of already genetically unique sex cells fuse together and their nuclei combine, thus compounding the primary variation.

Reproduction and evolution
      Sexual reproduction appears to be a process serving two opposing needs. The individuals produced must be almost exactly like their parents if they are to succeed; i.e., to grow and reproduce in turn, under the prevailing circumstances. At the same time they should exhibit a wide range of differences so that some at least can survive under different environmental circumstances. The first business of reproduction is to produce perfect working copies of the parental organism, without any mistakes. The second is to introduce novelties—i.e., new models (polymorphism) that make possible other life styles. Extreme conservatism, in either sexual or nonsexual reproduction, may be disastrous to the species in the long run. Extreme variability may also be detrimental, resulting in the production of too high a percentage of misfits. A delicate balance has to be struck. Variability is necessary but must be kept within bounds. Sex is responsible for controlled diversity, without which adaptation and evolution could not take place.

      Natural selection operates in two ways on this basic diversity inherent in any particular population or community. In a stable environment, where there is little change during a long period of time, except for the regular diurnal and seasonal changes, those individuals most likely to survive and produce offspring are those that are most like their parents at all stages of their existence. The more radical departures from the established types fail either to grow or to compete successfully and consequently do not reproduce. The less radical departures struggle along but leave progeny in proportionately smaller numbers. If, however, a significant long-term change occurs in the environment, the established types are likely to suffer, while other types that previously had been weeded out now may be favoured. They may become the more successful at surviving and growing and consequently replace themselves more readily than do others. They, in turn, become the establishment, and the older type is jeopardized. A constant interplay persists between a changeable environment and a variable population. This is adaptation. If environmental change continues in the same general direction, adaptation also continues in the initial direction, and eventually significant evolution becomes apparent.

      The variability or diversity resulting from sexual reproduction is vital in two ways. It permits the process of natural selection to work and allows a population of organisms to adapt to new conditions. It also serves as a corrective mechanism. During nonsexual reproduction, particularly of single-cell organisms, large populations of virtually identical individuals are readily built up and maintained for a great many generations. Sooner or later, however, more and more abnormalities appear and, usually, a general waning of vigour ensues. When such organisms subsequently fuse together in pairs, equivalent to sexual reproduction, a rejuvenation and reestablishment of healthy strains generally follows.

Life cycles adjusted to environmental change
      Both sexual and nonsexual reproduction may be exploited or adjusted to meet widely fluctuating environmental conditions, especially those of a regular seasonal character. This phenomenon is particularly striking in the case of the smaller or simpler forms of animal and plant life that have a life-span of a year or less. The seeds of annual plants germinate in the spring, grow and set seed in turn during the summer, and die in the fall. Only the sexually produced seeds persist and represent the species during the long winter season. Certain small, though common, freshwater creatures have a similar cycle. The microscopic eggs of Hydra and of Daphnia (water flea), for example, lie at the bottom of ponds throughout the winter, each within a tough protective case. In late winter or early spring, a new generation of hydras develops, each individual becoming attached to a stone or vegetation and feeding on small crustaceans by means of its long slender tentacles. The daphnias, or so-called water fleas, emerge at about the same time and grow rapidly to maturity. In both cases the growing season, usually from spring until fall, is a time for intensive reproduction by whatever means is most effective. Hydras bud off new hydras continually, each new hydra repeating the process, with the size of populations limited only by available food. Only late in the season, when the food supply drops off and the temperature drops, does the riotous splurge of nonsexual reproduction come to an end. Then each individual ceases to bud and produces either minute ovaries or testes, and in some species, both. Eggs become fertilized, encased, drop into the mud, and await the coming of the following spring, while the parental creatures die as living conditions worsen with approaching winter. Such is a general pattern of life, widely seen among creatures whose individual existence is measured in weeks or months but whose race must persist in some form at all times if extinction is to be avoided.

      So it is with Daphnia and many other organisms. The Daphnia also changes according to the times, but it alternates between one form of sexual reproduction and another. Sexually, the Daphnia is exquisitely adapted to the little world in which it lives. Under ideal conditions every member of a Daphnia community is female. All those first hatching out from winter eggs in the spring are females. Each produces a succession of broods during the month or two of its individual existence, all offspring being females. Each such female, generation after generation, during the spring and summer seasons, produces eggs that develop at once without need or opportunity of being fertilized. No males in fact are present. Every individual is a self-sufficient breeding female. Population explosions occur wherever environmental circumstances are favourable. Eventually, however, conditions inevitably change for the worse, either because of effects inherent in any population explosion or because every season comes to an end. Food becomes scarce because of too many consumers; space becomes crowded and in some degree polluted; chilly days succeed the warmth of summer. Whatever the cause, and well before disaster can strike, the creatures respond in remarkable ways. On the first signal that conditions may be getting less than good, a certain number of the eggs produced by a population of Daphnia develop into males, each with testes in place of ovary, together with certain secondary sexual characteristics. A scattering of males through the virgin paradise, however, is only the first step, a preparedness in case conditions go from bad to worse. If there has been a false alarm, the females continue to produce female-producing eggs that develop parthenogenetically (parthenogenesis)—that is, without benefit of fertilization—and the males die off without performing any sexual function. But if the environmental signal means the beginning of the end of congenial conditions, a cell in the ovary of each female grows to form a larger egg than usual, and it is of a type that must be fertilized. Then mating between the sexes takes place, and the resulting special, fertilized eggs become thickly encased and alone survive the winter season after becoming separated from the parent.

      Wherever small aquatic creatures live in bodies of water that may freeze in winter or dry up in summer, similar adaptations may be seen in many forms of life besides hydras and water fleas. Certain small fish, known as the annual fishes, have individual life-spans of about six months. The life-span itself is in fact adapted to the period during which active existence is possible in their particular habitat. When the water holes, swamps, and puddles in which they live begin to dry up, mating takes place, and the fertilized eggs drop into the mud. The parents die, and the eggs remain in a state of suspended development until the next rainy season occurs. The race must continue whatever the circumstances, and all sex is directed toward this end.

The origin of sex and sexuality
      All sexual reproduction, no matter how large or small the organisms may be, is a performance of single cells. Only at the level of single cells can the essential genetic recombinations be accomplished. So in every generation new life begins with the egg, which is a single cell, however large it may be. Egg and sperm unite at fertilization, but the fertilized egg is as much a single cell as before. When did it all begin? The generally accepted answer is that the fundamental, or molecular, basis of sexuality is an ancient evolutionary development that goes back almost to the beginning of life on earth, several billion years ago, for it is evident among the vast world of single-celled organisms, including bacteria.

      In these lowest forms of life, sex and reproduction are distinct happenings. Reproduction is accomplished in most cases entirely by fission (binary fission), which is simply cell division repeated regularly, as long as the environmental conditions permit. As long as crowding and other adverse changes are avoided, cells divide, and the daughter cells grow and divide again, for weeks or months on end. This process occurs in both plantlike and animal-like single-celled organisms and in bacteria as well. Under certain other conditions, such cell organisms come together and fuse in pairs, a form of sexual behaviour at its primary level and comparable to the fusion of an egg and sperm. In all such case, a combined cell is produced in which nuclear exchange or recombination has occurred. Pairing off of this sort takes place sooner or later in all forms of unicellular life, even where no outwardly distinguishable differences can be detected between the pairing individuals. The lack of discernible differences between the members of mating pairs, however, does not mean that pairing occurs between identical individuals. In the much investigated Paramecium and other protozoan organisms, two separate populations of cells may continue to increase almost indefinitely by ordinary cell division of single individuals, but when two such populations are mixed together, mating generally occurs immediately between individuals from the two different sources. The fusion, or pairing, has essentially the same function as the fusion of the male and female nucleus during the process of fertilization of eggs of higher forms. It is the basis of sex, the essential event in all cases being the genetic or chromosomal recombination.

      Individual mating cells (i.e., eggs, sperm, or even whole single-celled organisms) may be called gametes whether or not they are distinguishable from one another. Yet even among the varius single-celled organisms, mating commonly occurs between individuals of two different kinds. This kind of mating is seen most often among the single-celled organisms known as flagellates (flagellate). In some species the gametes may be alike and all are motile, progressing through the water by means of one or more whiplike flagella similar to the tail of a sperm. In other species, all individuals may still be motile, but pairing occurs between individuals of different sizes. In still others, one of the two mating types may be very small and motile, and the other, large, with stored nutritional material, and nonmotile. All degrees of differentiation between male and female gametes can be found, and it is probable that the basic and characteristic distinction between the sex cells of both animal and plant life in general was established very early in the course of evolution, during the immense period of time when virtually all living organisms consisted of single cells.

      This division of labour between mating types, male and female, respectively, is nature's way of attaining two ends. These are the bringing together of the gametes so that fusion may take place and the accumulation of reserves so that development of a new organism can be accomplished. The first calls for as many motile cells as possible; the second calls for cells as large as possible. These different requirements are practically impossible to satisfy by a single type of cell. Accordingly, and especially in multicelled animals of all sorts, male gametes, or spermatozoa, are extremely small, extremely motile, and are produced in enormous numbers. The larger the number, the greater the likelihood that some will encounter and fertilize eggs. On the other hand, the female gametes, or ova, individually need to be as large as possible since the larger the size and the more condensed the internal nutritional reserves, the farther along the path of embryonic development the egg can travel before hatching must occur and the new organism must fend for itself. Nevertheless, eggs in general are caught between the desirability of being individually as large as they can be and the persisting need to be produced in reasonably large numbers, so that an assortment of differing individuals is produced from a single pair of parents. A large number of offspring ensures that a proportion, at least, will survive the environmental hazards faced by all developing organisms in some degree.

Differentiation of the sexes
      Animals and plants, apart from microscopic kinds of life, consist of enormous numbers of cells coordinated in various ways to form a single organism, and each consists of many different kinds of cells specialized for performing different functions. Certain tissues are set aside for the production of sexual reproductive (reproduction) cells, male or female as the case may be. Whether they are testes or ovaries or, as in some animals and plants, both together in the same parental individual, they are typically contained within the body, and therefore the sex cells usually need to be passed to the outside in order to function. Only in certain lowly creatures such as hydras is there a simpler state, for in hydras the testes and ovaries form in the outermost layer of cells of the slender, tubular body, and the sex cells when ripe burst directly from the simple, bulging gonads into the surrounding water. With few other exceptions, in all other creatures the gonads are part of the internal tissues and some means of exit is necessary. In some, such as most worms, all that is needed are small openings, or precisely placed pores, in the body wall through which sperm or eggs can escape. In most others, more is needed and a tubular sperm duct or an oviduct leads from each testis or ovary, through which the sex cells pass to the exterior. This is minimal equipment, except where none is needed. The gonad and its duct is accordingly comparable to other glands in the body; that is, the gland is generally a more or less compact mass of cells of a particular, specialized kind, together with a duct for passage of the product of the tissue to the site of action. Gonads secrete—i.e., produce and transmit—sex cells that usually act outside the body.

      Differentiation between the sexes exists, therefore, as the primary difference represented by the distinction between eggs and sperm, by differences represented by nature of the reproductive (reproduction) glands and their associated structures, and lastly by differences, if any, between individuals possessing the male and female reproductive tissues, respectively.

      Sex cells, sexual organs, other sexual structures, and sexual distinction between individuals constitute a series of evolutionary (evolution) advances connected with various changes and persisting needs in the general evolution of animals and, to some degree, of plants as well. In other words, no matter how large or complex a creature may become, it still needs to deliver functional sex cells to the exterior. This condition is almost always the case for sperm cells. Among aquatic animals, particularly marine animals whose external medium, the ocean, is remarkably similar chemically to the internal body fluid medium of all animals, eggs are also in most cases shed to the exterior, where development of the fertilized eggs can proceed readily. Even so, time and place are important. Starfish (echinoderm), sea urchins, and many others, for instance, accumulate mature eggs and sperm in the oviducts and sperm ducts until an appropriate time when all can be shed at once. When one member of a group of such creatures begins to spawn, chemicals included in the discharge stimulate other members to do the same, so that a mass spawning takes place. One might say that the more they are together the more variable their offspring may be. This situation actually is the crux of the matter for nearly all forms of life, because while it may be possible for a single individual to possess both male and female gonads, producing both sperm and eggs, it remains generally desirable, if not essential, that eggs be fertilized by sperm produced by another individual. cross-fertilization results in a much greater degree of variability than does self-fertilization. The existence of two types of individuals, male and female, is the common means of ensuring that cross-fertilization will be accomplished, since then nothing else is possible. Where the sexes are separate, therefore, all that is necessary is that members of the opposite sex get together at a time and place appropriate for the initial development of fertilized eggs. Typically, spawning of this sort is a communal affair, with many individuals of each sex discharging sex cells into the surrounding water. This process is only suitable, however, when eggs are without tough protective cases or membranes; that is, only when eggs are readily fertilizable for some time after being shed and while drifting in the sea. In this circumstance there is no need for individuals of the opposite sex to mate in pairs, nor is such mating practiced.

Mating
      Mating between two individuals of the opposite sex becomes necessary when eggs must be fertilized at or before the time the eggs are shed. Whenever eggs have a protective envelope of any kind through which sperm cannot penetrate, fertilization must take place before the envelope is formed. The envelope may at first be a gluey liquid, which covers the egg and solidifies as a tough egg case, as in all crustaceans, insects, and related creatures. It may be a thick membrane of protein deposited around the egg, as in fishes generally; or it may be a material that swells up as a mass of jelly surrounding the eggs after the eggs have been shed, as in frogs and salamanders. And finally, it may be a calcified shell, as in birds and reptiles. In all of these organisms the sperm must reach the egg before the protective substance is added, except in those forms in which a small opening or pore persists in the egg membrane through which sperm can enter.

      When and how such eggs need to be fertilized depends on the nature of the protective membranes and the time and place of their formation. The jelly surrounding frog and toad eggs, for instance, swells up immediately after the eggs are shed. Mating and fertilization must take place at the time of spawning. Male frogs mount the back of female frogs and each clasps his mate firmly around the body, which not only helps press the egg mass downward but brings the cloacal opening of male and female close together. Eggs and sperm are shed simultaneously, and the eggs are fertilized as they leave the female body. Fish eggs are also fertilized as or shortly after they are shed, although fish have no arms and mating generally is usually no more than a coming together of the two sexes side by side, so that simultaneous shedding of sperm and eggs can be accomplished. In other creatures the mating procedure may be much more complicated, depending on various circumstances. Crustaceans (crustacean) such as crabs and lobsters, for example, mate in somewhat the same manner as frogs, with the male holding on to the female by means of clawlike appendages and depositing sperm at the openings of the oviducts, which are typically situated near the middle of the undersurface of the body.

Mating modifications imposed by the land environment
      Greater problems arise on land than in water. Eggs produced by truly terrestrial creatures are either retained in the parental body during their development or must be fully protected from drying up. Protective membranes must be tough indeed. More importantly, however, sperm cells must still be deposited where they can swim toward the eggs, for they cannot survive or function except in a watery solution of dilute salts. In all terrestrial creatures, except those that return to water to breed, sperm can survive only in the body of the male or female organism. All insects (insect), therefore, must mate in order for eggs to be fertilized, and all have appendages at the rear of the body that serve as a copulatory device capable of being used even when in flight. Sperm is injected into the female's duct or storage sac, either for immediate fertilization or for later use. The queens of bees, ants, and termites, in fact, mate once and for all during a nuptial flight and thereafter use the stored sperm to fertilize all the eggs they subsequently produce.

      The land vertebrates have to cope with much the same breeding circumstances as the insects. Man is more aware of these procedures because they happen mostly in much larger creatures and also because he has some fellow feeling for them. Reptiles (reptile), birds, and even the most primitive surviving mammals—namely, the platypus and spiny anteater of Australasia—produce yolky eggs encased in a more or less rigid calcareous shell. Moreover, within the shell, a thick layer of albumen surrounds the egg proper. Both the albumen and the shell are added after the ovum leaves the ovary and during its passage down the oviduct. Fertilization must take place, if at all, as the eggs enter the oviduct, for neither the albumen nor the shell can be penetrated by spermatozoa. Sperm must therefore be introduced into the female and must be able to make their way up to the end of the oviduct, which is a very long journey for so small a cell. An enormous number must begin the journey to make sure that some will reach the goal.

Sexual anatomy
      In reptiles and birds of both sexes, as in amphibians and fish, a single opening to the exterior serves jointly for both the intestine and reproductive duct. This is the cloaca, or vestibule. Nevertheless, copulation of a sort occurs in all three groups of terrestrial vertebrates: the reptiles, birds, and mammals. With the exception of man, the male always mounts the female from the rear or back, and in both reptiles and birds the cloacal openings are pressed closely together to form a continuous passage from one individual to the other. With one exception, the archaic tuatara (Sphenodon) of New Zealand, all present-day reptiles have an erectile penis, derived from the cloacal wall, that delivers the sperm into the proper duct. One mating may serve for a long time, and there are cases known in which female snakes have laid fertile eggs after months and sometimes years of isolation in captivity. On the other hand, a penis of any sort is lacking in most kinds of birds, and the pressing together of the cloacal apertures seems to serve well enough. The most advanced copulatory procedure is that of mammals (mammal). In mammals the cloaca has become replaced by separate openings for the reproductive duct and intestine, respectively. Eggs have become microscopic, devoid of shell, yolk, and virtually all albumen, although they still need to be fertilized as they enter the upper end of the oviduct. A well-developed, erectile penis is always present in the male for the ejaculation of stored sperm well up the reproductive passage of the female. Accordingly, the two sexes have become strikingly differentiated anatomically, with regard to delivery of sperm, compared with the seemingly primitive anatomical equipment of birds.

      The coming together of two members of the opposite sex is a necessary preliminary to mating. It may be accomplished by two individuals independently of any larger congregation, or it may result from two individuals pairing off within a breeding population that may have assembled even from the ends of the earth. In the one the problem is to find one another; in the other the problem is to find the appropriate place, called the staging area. In both cases timing and some sort of navigation are important. Mass assembly appears to be the more effective, although a local crowd of any kind of animal may be an open invitation to predators, human or otherwise, and may on occasion become disastrous.

      The searching out of a solitary individual by another of the opposite sex can be a difficult matter. In the dark depths of the ocean, for instance, where fish and other marine life forms are extremely scarce and scattered, the chance of encounter is rare indeed. The small angler fish (Photocorynus spiniceps) that cruise around at great depths are most unlikely to meet a member of the opposite sex at a time or place when the female happens to be ready to shed her eggs. As a form of insurance to this end, however, any small, young male that happens to meet a large female, apparently at any time, immediately fastens on to her head or sides by his jaws and thereafter lives a totally parasitic existence sustained by the juices of the female body. Sperm thus becomes available at any time the female may produce eggs to be fertilized.

      On land this individual procedure of searching out is common among insects and the more predatory mammals. Male crickets and cicadas sound their familiar signals, by night or by day, which attract any females within hearing distance. More remarkable are those insects and other creatures that produce living light (bioluminescence), in some cases for no apparent purpose but in others, such as the firefly, for signalling between the sexes in the dark of summer nights. The male individuals, always more dispensable than females, fly freely at considerable risk, flashing their light at regular intervals. The light of the female, perched more safely on some tall grass, winks back as though it were a landing light, and so they come together. Each of the several species of firefly has its own flash code, or rhythm, and any wasteful attempt at interspecies mixing is avoided. On the same principle, female moths (moth) send their personal perfume into the night air, and those males that detect the scent fly toward the source, the winner taking all. Mammals also depend mainly on their sense of smell, being generally colour blind, not too attentive to sound, and, apart from the grazing and browsing creatures, mainly active at night. The scented sex appeal of a cat (feline) in heat, whether domestic or wild, excites all the males in the neighbourhood and, with or without the sound of voice, male and female come quickly together in the dark. In all of these, courting is mostly uncalled for since only ready-to-mate individuals are involved in this sexual searching in the dark.

      Courting is necessary whenever the male is a supplicant. A female may not be ready to mate, and stimulation in the form of dance or song may be required to create the mood; or, as is commonly the case, there is a surplus of available and eager males, and one must be chosen among many. However it may be, courting is most practiced not only when the female is in command of the final outcome but also when the mating procedure presents certain difficulties. A small male spider dances before a larger and ever ravenous female in an effort to induce her sexual interest rather than her hunger. Birds especially, however, depend on courtship as a preliminary to mating. The mating of birds represents copulation in its simplest form, without benefit of significant anatomical devices. Bird wings are a poor substitute for arms in a sexual embrace. Consequently the fullest cooperation between male and female is essential to success. In most birds a long-lasting, often lifetime, bonding becomes established between a male and female, a bonding that is usually reinforced by ritual behaviour at certain intervals, particularly during the onset of each breeding season and on various occasions when the individuals meet after short periods of separation. In some species a new mate may be taken each season or, as in sparrows, a general promiscuity may prevail.

      One important aspect of courtship concerns the question of recognition. In gull colonies, for instance, members of the opposite sex look very much alike, and, at least to humans, the various individuals of one sex or the other may appear exactly the same. The advantages, with regard to successful production, incubation, and rearing of eggs and young, of permanent or semipermanent mate selection, however, are as great in gull colonies as elsewhere. The preliminaries to such a mutual selection not only establish a bond, by various posturings, but also establish the many small idiosyncrasies of action that add up to individuality and make one bird distinguishable among many within a colony, at least to its mate.

      Many different forms of sex-oriented behaviour have consequently evolved among birds, depending on the character and particular needs of the various species. Penguins (penguin) apparently not only look alike to human observers but also to themselves. Penguins seemingly have trouble even distinguishing between the sexes. Being unable to dance or sing, though they can make a lot of noise, male penguins can do little more than offer a pebble to a prospective female. If she accepts it as a token contribution to nest making, the match is on. If it is rejected, the suitor may have picked an unready female or even another male. In the case of most birds, however, the male can either sing, particularly the smaller kinds, or can strut and dance, with wings and feathers displayed, and some species, such as the lyre bird, continue to enchant the female by sight and sound together. In general, the need for physical mating has led to courtship and an emotional bonding between mating pairs throughout much of the animal kingdom at the higher level, particularly among birds and mammals. These are primarily utilitarian functions relating to the survival of the species, but in their fullest expression they represent what seem to man to be among the finest attributes of life.

Sex patterns
      Since the great value of sex as distinct from reproduction is the reassortment and recombination of genes every generation, sex cells from two separate parents ordinarily give rise to the greatest variaton, unless the parental individuals are themselves too closely related to each other. The presence of male and female individuals, respectively, generally produced in approximately equal numbers, is characteristic of so much of the animal kingdom that it appears to be the natural state. All that is certain, however, is that this condition has evolved as the most effective means to the particular end, and it may have done so independently among the various more or less unrelated groups of animals. The condition of separate sexes is not a universal fact, and two sexes within the same individual is typical of the more sluggish or actually attached kinds of animal life. Earthworms, slugs, land snails, flatworms, tapeworms, barnacles, sea squirts, and some others are all double-sexed individuals, or hermaphrodites. All have ovaries and testes producing mature eggs and sperm at the same time. Nevertheless, cross-fertilization is accomplished, and self-fertilization, even though possible, is generally avoided. Of those kinds of animal life mentioned above, all except the sea squirts have well-encased eggs that need to be fertilized before being laid. Mutual copulation, whereby each member of a mating pair of individuals introduces sperm into the body of the other member, is characteristic of these creatures, with the exception of the sea squirts.

      When animals shed sperm and comparatively naked eggs into the surrounding water, as is the case in sea squirts, self-fertilization is difficult to avoid. Most creatures have evolved an effective separation of the sexes between different individuals. Even so, there are more ways than one of accomplishing this. The common means is to produce male and female individuals that are constitutionally different, yet an equally effective procedure is for all individuals to be constitutionally the same but to become mature as male or female at different stages of the growth cycle. The oyster on its rock changes sex from male to female and back again once or twice a year. Certain shrimps (shrimp) also are hermaphrodites. Each young shrimp of this kind grows up to be a male and is fully and functionally a male when about half the size of the females. As the next season approaches, his testes shrink, no more spermatozoa are produced, and ovaries begin to enlarge. As full growth is reached, the shrimp that had been a male becomes a typical female, ready to mate again, but this time with a young male of a newer generation. The system works as well as any other and clearly has its points. In fact the hagfish, not a true fish but a more primitive jawless vertebrate, also changes sex regularly, from year to year.

Sex differences in animals
      In many animals, sexual differences are apparent in addition to the primary sex differentiation into males with testes and females with ovaries and apart from the accessory structures and tissues associated with the presence of one kind of sex gland or the other. Secondary sex differentiation in sexually distinct individuals is to be seen in many forms. In humans, for example, the beard and deep voice of the male and the enlarged breasts of the female are features of this sort. The great claw of the fiddler crab, the antlers of a moose, the great bulk and strength of a harem master in a fur seal colony, the beautiful fan tail of the peacock, and the bright feathers of other birds, are all distinctively male characteristics, and all are associated with the sexual drive of males. Females, by and large, are of comparatively quiet disposition and relatively drab appearance. Their function is to produce and nurture eggs, as safely and usually as inconspicuously as possible. The male function is to find and fertilize the female, for which both drive and display are generally required.

      It is the business of sperm to be active and so find an egg. Similarly it is the busines of males to find a female and mate with her if possible. The male drive, or male eagerness, is a consequence of this special function of males. In nature, males possessing a strong eagerness to mate will find more females and leave more progeny than males lacking in sex drive. The progeny moreover will tend to inherit the drive of the parent. Males therefore are generally competitive with other males, with a premium placed on physical strength and sex drive and also on various devices for the attraction and stimulation of the female. The various exclusively male features already listed are all examples of characteristics of this sort, and they are related to the securing of female mates rather than the actual fertilization of eggs or to the problems of survival and adaptation.

Seasonal or periodic sexual cycles
      In most animals sexual reproduction is seasonal or rhythmical (biological rhythm), and so is sexual behaviour, whether in the form of courtship, drive, or other activities that lead to mating. In the marine fireworm of the West Indies, for instance, individuals of both sexes live in crevices on the sea floor but come out to breed where their fertilized eggs can drift and develop in the water above. But they can only find one another by means of the luminescence they themselves produce, which is an eerie light visible only in complete darkness. Each spring or summer month they emerge and swim to the surface about one-half hour after sunset when all daylight is gone but only before the moon can rise, a situation that confines them to a monthly breeding period of three or four days after the full of the moon. They follow a lunar rhythm. So do the grunion, a common fish along the southern California coast. Here again mating takes place when all is dark and the tide is high. Pairing occurs in the wash of the waves on the sand; fertilized eggs become immediately buried and there develop until the next high spring tides reach and wash the upper level sand nearly two weeks later. The mysterious biological clocks that apparently all living things possess adjust the rhythms of life to the needs of the particular organism. Some of these timing processes call internal signals on a regular day and night basis; others, on a somewhat longer cycle that keeps pace with the moon rather than the sun; and many, especially in the larger animals, run on a seasonal, or annual, cycle. Many activities are brought into line with the regular changes occurring in the environment. Sex and reproduction, however, are adjusted mainly with regard to two functions; namely, safety while mating, which is therefore commonly in the dark, and the launching of the new generation at a time or season when circumstances are most favourable.

      Birds lay eggs, and most mammals deliver their young in early spring, when the months ahead are warm and food is plentiful. Sex for the most part is adjusted to this end. Among the mammals, for example, the period of development within the womb varies greatly, from less than three weeks in the smallest to almost a year in the largest and certain others. Yet with few exceptions, the time for birth is in the spring. The time for mating in most cases is accordingly adjusted to this event: the larger the offspring at birth, the earlier the mating must take place. The horse and the great whales mate in spring and deliver in spring; roe deer mate in summer and deliver in spring; goat and sheep mate in the fall and deliver in spring. Even the elephant, which has a 22-month pregnancy, delivers in spring but must mate in early summer two years before. In small creatures, however, such as mice, rats, hamsters, and shrews, where the gestation, or pregnancy, period is about three weeks, reproduction is still seasonal, but there is time during the warmer months for several broods to be conceived and raised. In others, expediency may prevail, and mating may occur at a time to suit the convenience of the pairing animals. The little brown bat, for instance, mates in the fall, and yet ovulation does not take place until winter has passed; the spermatozoa survive the winter in the uterus and fertilize the eggs when they in turn arrive there five or six months later. In some other creatures mating occurs at a convenient time, eggs are fertilized, but development itself is suspended at an early stage for a time so that hatching or birthing, depending on the kind of animal, takes place when circumstances are suitable.

      In all of this, the time of the mating season is clearly regulated, both with regard to the physiological condition of the animal and to the environmental conditions. The urge and capacity to mate depends on the ripeness of the gonads, male or female. In most animals, the reproductive glands wax and wane according to the seasons; that is, with an annual rhythm or else with a shorter cycle. Hormones are mainly in control of this rhythm. Sex hormones (sex hormone), male or female, respectively, are produced by the gonads themselves and cause or maintain their growth and at the same time cause the various secondary sexual characteristics of the male or female individual to become enhanced. Male hormone increases masculinity, even when injected into a female. Female canaries injected with male hormone no longer behave as females and shortly begin to sing loud and long and commence the courtship activities of a male. A hen thus injected grows a larger comb, starts to crow, and begins to strut.

      The production of these hormones is in turn controlled by hormones of the pituitary gland. Pituitary hormones stimulate ovarian or testicular tissue, which secretes the sex hormones. The sex hormones not only maintain the growth of the sexual tissues generally but inhibit the secretion of pituitary hormones, so that the process does not get out of hand. The pituitary activity, however, is also influenced by external conditions, particularly by stimuli received indirectly from light (photoperiodism). The annual growth of ovaries or testes that occurs in late winter and early spring in frogs, reptiles, birds, and mammals is initiated by the steadily increasing period of daylight. In response to this changing day length, female frogs are packed with eggs and male frogs are ready to croak by the time the mating period arrives. The large eggs of reptiles and birds are ready to be fertilized, and the males are showing whatever they may have to display at the proper time. In mammals, the female comes into heat, the uterus undergoes the preparatory changes for taking care of fertilized eggs, and the male usually has but one thought in his mind. But as daylight ceases to lengthen, the sexual drive slowly diminishes.

Sex determination
      The determination of the sex of an individual, with regard to both the primary sex—i.e., whether the ovaries or the testes develop—and the various secondary sexual characteristics may be rigorously controlled from the start of development or may be subject to later influences of a hormonal or environmental nature. However this may be, in order to appreciate the action of the control systems, the point of departure is that animals were primitively hermaphrodite (hermaphroditism), that during early stages of evolution every individual probably possessed both male and female gonads. Differentiation into separate sexes, each possessing male or female gonads but not both at the same time, is a device to ensure cross-fertilization of eggs, whether this is accomplished by having the two types of sexual gland mature at different stages of the growth of the individual, as in some shrimp and others, or whether by the production of two distinct types of individuals, as in most species of animals. This point of view is important because the question ceases to be how testes are caused to develop in the male organism and ovaries in the female but how, in a potentially double-sexed organism, the development of one or the other sex is suppressed. That such is the case is seen as clearly as anywhere in the human condition itself. Neither sex is completely male or female. Females have functional, well-developed mammary glands. Males also have mammary glands, undeveloped and nonfunctional although equipped with nipples. Males have a penis for delivering sperm, but females have a small, nonfunctional equivalent—the clitoris. These are secondary sexual features, to be sure, but the difference between the sexes is in the degree of their development, not a matter of absolute presence or absence.

      The basis for this is seen in the very beginnings of the development of the reproductive system, in frog, mouse, and man alike. In the young embryo a pair of gonads develop that are indifferent or neutral, showing no indication whether they are destined to develop into testes or ovaries. There are also two different duct systems, one of which can develop into the female system of oviducts and related apparatus and the other into the male sperm duct system. As development of the embryo proceeds, either the male or the female reproductive tissue differentiates in the originally neutral gonad of the mammal.

      In the frog and other lower vertebrate animals, the picture is even clearer. The original gonad consists of an outer layer of cells and an inner core of cells. If the individual is to be a male, the central tissue grows at the expense of the outer layer. If it is to be a female, the outer tissue grows at the expense of the central core tissue. If both should grow, which is a possibility although a rare occurrence, the individual will be a hermaphrodite. Anything that influences the direction taken therefore may be said to determine sex.

Sex chromosomes (sex chromosome)
      In most species of animals the sex of individuals is determined decisively at the time of fertilization of the egg, by means of chromosomal distribution. This process is the most clear-cut form of sex determination. When any cell in the body divides, except during the formation of the sex cells, each daughter cell receives the full complement of chromosomes; i.e., copies of the two sets of chromosomes derived from the sperm cell and egg, respectively. The two sets are similar except for one pair of chromosomes. These are the so-called sex chromosomes, and the pair may be exactly alike or they may be obviously different, depending on the sex of the individual. The sex chromosomes are of two types, which are designated X and Y, and the pair of sex chromosomes may consist of two X chromosomes or of an X and Y paired together. In mammals (including man) and flies, the cells of males contain an XY pair and the cells of females contain an XX pair. On the other hand, in butterflies, fishes (fish), and birds, the cells of females contain an XY pair and those of males contain an XX pair. In either case the Y chromosome is generally smaller than the X chromosome and may even be absent. What is most important concerning chromosomal sex determination is whether the cells of the individual contain one X chromosome or two X chromosomes. Human beings, for example, have cells with 22 pairs of nonsexual chromosomes, or autosomes, together with an XX pair or an XY pair. The female has a total of 46 functional chromosomes; the male has 45 plus a Y, which is mainly inert. Sex determination thus becomes a matter of balance. With one X chromosome plus the 44 autosomes in every cell, the whole course of development of primary and secondary sexual characteristics is toward the male; with two X chromosomes plus the autosomes in every cell, the whole system is swung over to the female.

      The manipulation of this control system is readily accomplished during the special process of cell division that takes place in the gonads to produce sperm and eggs and their subsequent union at fertilization. In mammals (mammal), for example, since all cells in the female contain two X chromosomes, all the eggs will receive a single X chromosome when they are formed. All eggs are accordingly the same in this respect. In contrast, all cells in the male have the XY constitution, and therefore, when the double set of chromosomes is reduced to a single set during the formation of the spermatozoa, half of the spermatozoa will receive an X and half will receive a Y. Consequently, when an egg is fertilized by a sperm, the chances are about equal that the sperm will carry an X or will carry a Y, since the two types are inevitably produced in equal numbers. If it carries an X, the XX female constitution results; if a Y, then the XY male constitution results.

Abnormal chromosome effects
      Occasionally, however, the processes of chromosomal reassortment and recombination (malformation) occurring during sex cell formation and fertilization depart somewhat from the normal course. Sperm and eggs may be produced that are oversupplied or undersupplied with sex chromosomes. Fertilized eggs in humans may, for instance, have abnormal sex chromosome constitutions such as XXX, XXY, or XO. Those with the triple-X chromosome constitution have all the appearance of normal females and are called, in fact, superfemales, although only some will be fertile. Those with the XO (one X, but lacking Y altogether) constitution, a much more common condition, are also feminine in body form and type of reproduction system but remain immature. Individuals with the XXY constitution are outwardly males but have small testes and produce no spermatozoa. Those with the more abnormal and relatively rarer constitutions XXXXY and XXYY are typically mentally defective and in the latter case are hard to manage. Thus abnormal combinations generally result in an infertility on the one hand and an abnormal sexuality in the whole system, for either too little or too much of what is ordinarily good can be disastrous.

      Very different kinds of abnormal development resulting from faulty chromosomal distribution are particularly observable in insects (insect). The most common form in flies is an individual that is male on one side, female on the other, with a sharp line of demarcation. In other cases one-quarter of the body may be male and three-quarters female, or the head may be female and the rest of the body, male. These types are known as gynandromorphs, or sexual mosaics, and result from aberration in the distribution of the X chromosomes among the first cells to be formed during the early development of the embryo. This condition is unknown among higher animals.

      The unfertilized, ripe egg possesses all the potentiality for full development. The process of fertilization by a spermatozoon introduces the nucleus of the male sex cell into the female egg, a process that increases the differences between parent and offspring and may determine the sex of the new individual and also stimulates the egg to begin development. These two functions are separate. Parthenogenetic development, without benefit of sperm, occurs naturally in various kinds of animals besides the waterflea (Daphnia), already described. Artificial, or experimental, parthenogenesis is readily brought about in many other species and by a variety of means. Mature, unfertilized eggs of starfish, sea urchins, various worms, and other marine invertebrate animals can be caused to develop by treatment with a weak organic acid. Unfertilized frog eggs can be readily caused to develop by gentle pricking of the egg surface with the tip of a fine glass needle that has been dipped in lymph. In nature the eggs of various creatures can develop with or without the aid of spermatozoa. The sex of parthenogenetically developed individuals, insofar as it depends on the chromosomal constitution of the developing egg, is consequently affected. frog eggs developing parthenogenetically become males, since only one X chromosome is present in each cell. In nature, where varying conditions call for various responses, the system is usually more complicated, although based on the general relationship that individuals with the XX constitution will be female and those with a single X will be males. A queen honeybee, for instance, begins her reproductive life with a store of sperm received from a male during her nuptial flight. Throughout spring and summer almost all eggs become fertilized and develop into females (either as nonfertile female workers or as new fertile queens, depending on the nature of food received during growth). Toward the end of summer, when the sperm supply runs low, eggs cease to be fertilized (fertilization) and, when laid, develop into drones, ready to mate with a new queen should occasion arise. In other cases, even parthenogenetically developing eggs may become female individuals through a process of chromosome doubling, which takes place in the mature but unfertilized eggs. Thus certain wasps, waterfleas, and others are able to produce many exclusively female generations in succession.

Effects of environment
      Sex chromosomes (heredity), however, do not determine sex directly but do so through their control of such cell activities as metabolism and hormone production. Their determinative influence, indirect though it is, may be complete. On the other hand, environmental conditions may play the dominating role. In the case of Bonellia, a unique kind of marine worm, all eggs develop into small larvae of a sexually indifferent kind. Those that settle freely on the sea floor grow into comparatively large females, each of which has a long, broad extension, the proboscis, at its front end. Those larvae that happen to settle on the proboscis of a female, however, fail to grow beyond a certain minute size and become dwarf males, permanently attached to the female body. The sex-determining factor appears to be the environmental carbon dioxide tension, which is relatively high at the surface of living tissue.

Hormones
      Because in most developing animals the reproductive gland is essentially neutral to begin with, there is generally some possibility that agents external to the gland, particularly chemical agents—i.e., hormones—circulating in the blood system, may override the sex-determining influence of the sex chromosomes. In the chick (chicken), for example, the sex can be controlled experimentally by such means until about four hours after hatching. If a female chick is injected on hatching with the male sex hormone, testosterone, it will develop into a fully functional cock. Even when injected at later stages of growth, the male hormone causes extra early growth of the comb, crowing, and aggressive behaviour after being injected in either male or female chicks. Female sex hormones, such as estrogen, on the other hand, stimulate early growth of the oviduct in the female and feminize the plumage and suppress comb growth when injected in the male.

      This susceptibility of the reproductive (reproduction) glands, and sexuality in general, to the influence of sex hormones (gamete) is particularly acute in mammals, where the egg and embryo, unprotected by any shell, develop in the uterus exposed to various chemicals filtering through from the maternal blood stream. A developing embryo eventually produces its own sex hormones, but they are not manufactured in any quantity until the anatomical sex of the embryo is already well established. One of the curious things about sex hormones, however, is that the reproductive glands are not the only tissues that produce them. The placenta, through which all exchange between fetus and mother takes place, itself produces tremendous amounts of female sex hormone, together with some male hormone, which are excreted by the mother during pregnancy. This condition is true of humans, as well as of mice and rats. As a rule these hormones are produced too late to do any harm (congenital disorder), but not always. The female embryo is fairly immune inasmuch as additional female hormone merely causes a child to be more feminine than usual at an early age. Male embryos, however, may be seriously affected if the female hormone catches them at an early stage. Boy babies may be born that are truly males but under the impact of the feminizing hormone appear superficially to be females and are often raised as such. As a rule, even when older, they have more or less sterile, undescended testes (gonad); an imperfect penis; well-developed breasts; an unbroken voice; and no beard. One in a thousand may be like this and on occasion may have won in women's Olympic competitions. In other cases, those somewhat less severely affected, during adolescence when the hidden testes (testis) begin to secrete their own male hormones (sex hormone) in abundance, the falsely female characteristics become suppressed, and the voice, beard, breasts, and sexual interest take on the pattern of the male. What were thought to be girls in their youth change into the men they were meant to be upon reaching maturity.

N.J. Berrill

Additional Reading

General works
Adrian Forsyth, A Natural History of Sex (1986, reissued 1993), treats the role of sex in the natural world. The origins of sex and genetic recombination are considered in John Maynard Smith, The Evolution of Sex (1978); and Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan, Origins of Sex: Three Billion Years of Genetic Recombination (1986), and Mystery Dance: On the Evolution of Human Sexuality (1991); and the benefits derived by all species from genetic recombination are presented in James L. Gould and Carol Grant Gould, Sexual Selection (1989).

Animals and plants
George C. Williams, Adaptation and Natural Selection (1966, reissued 1974), offers an illuminating and thoughtful discussion of animal sexual reproduction in relation to the processes of biological evolution and adaptation. Courtship and mating are addressed in Margaret Bastock, Courtship: An Ethological Study (1967); J.H. Prince, The Universal Urge: Courtship and Mating Among Animals (1972); Robert L. Smith (ed.), Sperm Competition and the Evolution of Animal Mating Systems (1984); and Mark Jerome Walters, The Dance of Life (1988; also published as Courtship in the Animal Kingdom, 1989). The active role of the females in mate selection is investigated in Patrick Bateson (ed.), Mate Choice (1983); Evelyn Shaw and Joan Darling, Female Strategies (1985); Bettyann Kevles, Females of the Species: Sex and Survival in the Animal Kingdom (1986); and Mary Batten, Sexual Strategies: How Females Choose Their Mates (1992).The sexual systems, mate choices, and pollination strategies of plants are detailed in Mary F. Willson, Plant Reproductive Ecology (1983); Bastiaan Meeuse and Sean Morris, The Sex Life of Flowers (1984); and Jon Lovett Doust and Lesley Lovett Doust (eds.), Plant Reproductive Ecology: Patterns and Strategies (1988). Further works treating reproduction in animals and plants may be found in the bibliography to the article reproduction.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • sex — sex; sex·a·ge·nar·i·an·ism; sex·a·ges·i·ma; sex·a·ges·i·mal·ly; sex·a·ges·i·mo quarto; sex·ag·o·nal; sex·an·gu·lar; sex·de·cil·lion; sex·digital; sex·dig·it·ism; sex·en·ni·al; sex·er; sex·foil; sex·hood; sex·i·ness; sex·less·ness;… …   English syllables

  • SEX — Buch mit Hülle und CD SEX ist der Titel eines Bildbandes über die Künstlerin Madonna mit erotischen Fotografien von Steven Meisel. Für die Gestaltung war der renommierte Designer Glenn O’Brien zuständig. Die Texte wurden von Madonna verfasst. Die …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • sex — SEX, sexe, s.n. 1. Totalitatea caracteristicilor morfologice şi fiziologice care deosebesc animalele şi plantele în două categorii distincte, masculi şi femele. 2. Fiecare dintre cele două categorii de vieţuitoare diferenţiate după organele… …   Dicționar Român

  • Sex — Sex, Drogen Und Industrial Sex, Drogen Und Industrial EP Combichrist Дата выпуска 2004 Жанр Aggrotech Длительность 41 мин 54 сек Лейблы …   Википедия

  • Sex — Sm std. (20. Jh.) Entlehnung. Entlehnt aus ne. sex Geschlecht, Geschlechtsverkehr , dieses aus frz. sexe, aus l. sexus (das männliche und das weibliche) Geschlecht , zu l. secāre (sectum) scheiden . Entsprechende Entlehnungen über das Englische… …   Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen sprache

  • Sex (EP) — Sex EP de Tila Tequila Publicación 20 de Marzo, 2007 Grabación Suecia Género(s) Pop, Dance pop Duración 20:06 …   Wikipedia Español

  • Sex — ist die Liebesform einer Zeit, die für die Liebe keine Zeit mehr hat. «Sigmund Graff» Sex in längerer Verbindung ist die Kunst, Reprisen immer wieder wie Premieren erscheinen zu lassen. «Jeanne Moreau [* 1928]; franz. Schauspielerin» Sex ist sehr …   Zitate - Herkunft und Themen

  • sex — [seks] n. [ME < L sexus < ? secare, to cut, divide: see SAW1] 1. either of the two divisions, male or female, into which persons, animals, or plants are divided, with reference to their reproductive functions 2. the character of being male… …   English World dictionary

  • Sex — Sex, n. [L. sexus: cf. F. sexe.] 1. The distinguishing peculiarity of male or female in both animals and plants; the physical difference between male and female; the assemblage of properties or qualities by which male is distinguished from female …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • sex|u|al — «SEHK shu uhl», adjective. 1. of or having to do with sex. In sexual reproduction, animals and plants reproduce their own kind by the union of the male and female germ cells or gametes. 2. of or between the sexes: »sexual love. Her very frankness …   Useful english dictionary

  • sex|y — «SEHK see», adjective, sex|i|er, sex|i|est. 1. sexually appealing or stimulating; having sex appeal: »sexy photographs, sexy beauties. With words and music just simple, sad and sexy enough to make it sound like a hit (Time) …   Useful english dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”