• NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    Serious question: how are male and female defined, and why does the sea horse that gets pregnant count as male and not female?

    • azi@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      3 months ago

      Male is the sex that produces the smaller gamete, female the sex that produces the larger

    • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      it sounds like they consider a male seahorse a male because he produces sperm rather than eggs.

      The female seahorse drops her eggs off into a male brood pouch, a little pocket the male seahorse has on the front of him that has a placenta in it, and then he fertilizes those eggs and carries the fetuses for a few weeks and then little seahorses flutter out when he gives birth.

      there’s a video. and it’s a LOT of baby flutterhorses

      https://animals.howstuffworks.com/fish/male-seahorses-give-birth.htm

    • flora_explora@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Usually animals are categorized as male and female based on what type of gametes their gonads produce. So male sea horses produce sperm.

      Not sure how to count the “pregnancy” though, as these are fish and because of the following:

      The male seahorse is equipped with a brood pouch on the ventral, or front-facing, side of the tail. When mating, the female seahorse deposits up to 1,500 eggs in the male’s pouch. The male carries the eggs for 9 to 45 days until the seahorses emerge fully developed, but very small. The young are then released into the water, and the male often mates again within hours or days during the breeding season

      From Wikipedia

      E: the wiki article goes on to talk about pregnant sea horses, so yeah, they are pregnant and they do get impregnated by female sea horses!

      • Shhalahr@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        3 months ago

        The young are then released into the water, and the male often mates again within hours or days during the breeding season

        Oh, god. They have a pregnancy fetish.