Jump to content

What are these creatures?


kipitel

Recommended Posts

I need to know what all creatures have no male or female gender. A unisex.

 

 

Many creatures have both male and female sexual organs, some switch back and forth between male and female over the course of their lives some creatures are asexual and few are only one sex, female, with no males. Are you talking about asexual?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexual_reproduction

Edited by Moontanman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually the vast majority of species do not have separate male and female organisms. All bacteria, archaea, unicellular eukaryotes, fungi, most of the plants and even some of the animals.

 

 

Most plants? Some maybe but not most. Virtually all plants and animals above the microscopic level have male and female or just female individuals. There are a very few macroscopic asexual organisms, most are female that can reproduce without males...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only plant in my garden which have male and female in seperate individuals is the kiwi plant. All others have both male and female organs on the same individual plant.

 

So if you mean the existence of male or female organs, of course you are right. :)

I meant having seperate male and female individuals. (I was not precise).

Edited by Jens
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only plant in my garden which have male and female in seperate individuals is the kiwi plant. All others have both male and female organs on the same individual plant.

 

So if you mean the existence of male or female organs, of course you are right. :)

I meant having seperate male and female individuals. (I was not precise).

 

 

Then your garden is rather limited... many plants including many trees need not just separate flowers but separate male and female flowers on separate plants. Some plants blooms are self fertilizing, some require separate flowers and some plants effectively clone themselves. Some animals actually have only female individuals but have to mate with another animal of a separate species to procreate. Oh yes it's wild world... <_<

 

Oh yes, i knew you were going to ask...

 

http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/content/101/suppl_1/S55.full

 

The Amazon molly—named after the all-female tribe from Greek mythology—is a natural hybrid species that produces only females and consequently is unisexual (Hubbs CL and Hubbs LC 1932). The maternal ancestor was the Atlantic molly, Poecilia mexicana (Avise et al. 1991), and the paternal ancestor was the Sailfin molly, Poecilia latipinna (Schartl et al. 1995). The (likely) single hybridization event happened approximately 280 000 years ago in the general area of Tampico, Mexico (Schartl et al. 1995; Möller 1999; Stöck M, Lampert KP, Möller D, Schlupp I and Schartl M. submitted). Although the actual evolutionary sequence is not known in this case, it should be noted that Amazon mollies represent a case of instantaneous hybrid speciation (Seehausen 2004; Mallet 2007). Curiously, so far it has been impossible to create P. formosa–like, gynogenetic hybrids in the laboratory; crosses have so far always resulted in sexual F1 offspring, although many of the F1 females possess a trait that might make the evolution of gynogenesis more likely, namely diploid eggs (Lampert et al. 2007).

 

Amazon mollies are sperm dependent, which forces them into a parasitic relationship with a species that will provide sperm for successful reproduction (Hubbs CL and Hubbs LC 1932; Hubbs 1964; Schlupp 2005). Because Amazon mollies have internal fertilization, males need to copulate with females for insemination. Males from 2 species (P. latipinna and P. mexicana; Schlupp et al. 2002) are the main source of sperm for Amazon mollies. These host species are also the 2 species involved in the hybridization. A third species, the Tamesi molly, Poecilia latipunctata is also known to be a sperm donor (Niemeitz et al. 2002; Ptacek et al. 2005). This species, however, seems to play only a minor role as host (Tobler and Schlupp 2009). Amazon mollies occur in southeast Texas and northwest Mexico (Schlupp et al. 2002; Costa and Schlupp, forthcoming). The natural northern limit is the Nueces River, but recently Amazon mollies seem to be expanding their range northward (Martin D et al., personal communication). The southern limit is the Rio Tuxpan, Mexico. Both parental species have ranges that far exceed the area of sympatry with Amazon mollies, so that in both P. latipinna and P. mexicana, studies are possible comparing allopatric (not living with P. formosa) and syntopic (living with P. formosa) populations (Gabor and Ryan 2001).

 

Genetically, Amazon mollies are apomictic parthenogens and produce diploid eggs without meiosis (Rasch et al. 1982). Consequently, males mating with such females make an investment into mating without leaving behind offspring to which they are genetically related. The cost for such interactions is about the same for interactions with unisexual and sexual females: males of P. latipinna housed with either conspecific or Amazon molly females lost condition (a combined measure of weight and length) equally, whereas males from a control group kept with Gambusia females (another livebearing fish, but only distantly related, that is sexually ignored by P. latipinna males) gained condition (Schlupp I, Plante S, Chapman G, unpublished data). Hence, selection should act against males that engage in matings with Amazon mollies, if their conspecific competitors leave behind more offspring with their conspecific sexual females (Schlupp et al. 1994).

Edited by Moontanman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Then your garden is rather limited... many plants including many trees need not just separate flowers but separate male and female flowers on separate plants. Some plants blooms are self fertilizing, some require separate flowers and some plants effectively clone themselves. Some animals actually have only female individuals but have to mate with another animal of a separate species to procreate.

 

I have written "most" of the plants. "Most" means more than 50%. You are right (and I knew already) that there are plenty of plants which have separate male and female individuals. (so I do not think we have a scientific issue, but rather an issue in reading)

 

The scientific term of having male and female on separate individuals is "Dioecy". If you do not trust me, just have a look what wiki is telling about Dioecy (look at the last two sentences):

 

Dioecy (Greek: "two households"; adjective form: dioecious) is characterised by a species having distinct male and female organisms.[1] This is opposed to hermaphroditic species, or more correctly: monoecious species, in which on one individual both male and female reproductive organs are present. The majority of animal species[2] are dioecious. The term is rarely used for animals and is most often used in plants. The majority of plant species are monoecious[citation needed] and hence have either bisexual flowers or they possess both male and female flowers on the same plant. Still, a significant number of plant species are dioecious.

 

....and talking about my "limited" garden is not really a topic for this conversation (I have more than 100 species and with a bit of work I can provide latin names for about 50% of them) :)

 

The amazon molly is really interesting! Thanks for posting it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.