Essay on Sex Determination Among the Animals.
In many species, sex determination is genetic: males and females have different alleles or even different genes that specify their sexual morphology. In animals this is often accompanied by chromosomal differences, generally through combinations of XY, ZW, XO, ZO chromosomes, or haplodiploidy.
Mammals, birds, and some other animal species depend on heterozygous or homozygous chromosome combinations for sex determination. Cool or warm temperatures affect sex determination in species such as crocodiles and turtles. Some species, such as oysters, have the capability of alternating their sex several times within their life span. Key Terms.
SEX FOR PLEASURE Do animals get pleasure from sex? Science cannot say for sure what animals do or do not find “pleasurable”. However, current understanding suggests that anything an animal does that furthers its own survival is pleasurable; in order to make sure the animal keeps doing it. That includes sexual intercourse.
Sex determination of this sort--haploid males and diploid females--is called haplodiploidy. Some other kinds of animals have the same sort of method of sex determination, but it is best studied in Hymenoptera. Gender is actually determined by a single gene (at least in bees, in which this is well explored) (Beye et al. 2003).
Sex chromosomes 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.
Chromosomes that differ between sexes are called sex chromosomes. In most animals, with the exception of birds, females have two X chromosome s, and males have an X and a Y chromosome. Some genes are sex-linked genes, meaning that they are inherited with the sex chromosomes.
Sex is defined as the biological differences between men and women whereas gender is the fashion in which society highlights the sexual differences among both species (Siann, 1994). From the moment we are born, our lives are shaped by our biological identity, which in turn, is further influenced by an unlimited number of social, cultural, environmental and psychological forces.