Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Animals, including mammals, produce gametes (sperm and egg) through meiosis in gonads (testicles in males and ovaries in females). Sperm are produced by the process of spermatogenesis and eggs are produced by oogenesis. These processes are outlined in the article gametogenesis.
Sexual reproduction is the most common life cycle in multicellular eukaryotes, such as animals, fungi and plants. [6] [7] Sexual reproduction also occurs in some unicellular eukaryotes. [2] [8] Sexual reproduction does not occur in prokaryotes, unicellular organisms without cell nuclei, such as bacteria and archaea.
Reproduction (or procreation or breeding) is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. There are two forms of reproduction: asexual and sexual. In asexual reproduction, an organism can reproduce without the involvement of another organism.
Other semelparous animals include many insects, including some species of butterflies, cicadas, and mayflies, many arachnids, and some molluscs such as some species of squid and octopus. Semelparity also occurs in smelt and capelin, but other than bony fish it is a very rare strategy in vertebrates.
The three traditional modes of reproduction are: [1] Oviparity, taken to be the ancestral condition, where either unfertilised oocytes or fertilised eggs are spawned. [1] Viviparity, including any mechanism where young are born live, or where the development of the young is supported by either parent in or on any part of their body. [1]
[9] [10] [11] This type of reproduction has been induced artificially in a number of animal species that naturally reproduce through sex, including fish, amphibians, and mice. [ 12 ] [ 13 ] Some species reproduce exclusively by parthenogenesis (such as the bdelloid rotifers ), while others can switch between sexual reproduction and parthenogenesis.
Sex describes the biological sex a person was assigned at birth, based on characteristics of maleness or femaleness as indicated by chromosomes, gonads, hormones and genitals.
Asexual reproduction is found in nearly half of the animal phyla. [57] Parthenogenesis occurs in the hammerhead shark [ 58 ] and the blacktip shark . [ 59 ] [ 60 ] In both cases, the sharks had reached sexual maturity in captivity in the absence of males, and in both cases the offspring were shown to be genetically identical to the mothers.