Male is the sex that produces the smaller gamete, female the sex that produces the larger
Comment on me & him
NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 4 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 3 months ago
flora_explora@beehaw.org 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
I could see how this could be seen as pregnancy.
Shhalahr@beehaw.org 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.
jol@discuss.tchncs.de 4 months ago
The male doesn’t get pregnant. It’s like a kangaroo with a pouch to carry the babies.
flora_explora@beehaw.org 3 months ago
Except that in cangaroos the mother actually needs to be pregnant and birth its babies first. In sea horses the female directly lays the eggs inside the pouch of the male, impregnating it, and the male then undergoes pregnancy. So actually very different to kangaroos?
jol@discuss.tchncs.de 3 months ago
No, it’s exactly like kangaroos. /s…
flora_explora@beehaw.org 3 months ago
My point was that it is nothing like in kangaroos. The comparison is just misleading.
Varyk@sh.itjust.works 4 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 brood pouch, a little pocket the male seahorse has on the front of him, and then he fertilizes those eggs and then little seahorse come out after a bit.
…howstuffworks.com/…/male-seahorses-give-birth.ht…
einlander@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Basically a reverse kangaroo.
Varyk@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
yea lil flappy water kangaroos
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Incidentally, “reverse kangaroo” is also a sex act that is prohibited by law in all of the states and territories of Australia, except Tasmania.
Hule@lemmy.world 3 months ago
No, it isn’t!
I looked it up…