The sex life of hermaphroditic animals is determined by one fundamental question: Who assumes the female role and produces the costly eggs? Hamlets avoid this dilemma by engaging in reciprocal egg ...

The natural world offers many curiosities, but hermaphroditism—the presence of both male and female reproductive organs—may be among the most peculiar. Take the chalk bass (Serranus tortugarum), for ...

The hamlet fish can be both the father and mother of its offspring – a characteristic that is helping researchers to understand why genes often undergo recombination more readily in one sex. Whether ...

Gender bending Changing sex might come naturally to the sharpnose sandperch, but a personality makeover is another matter. An international study published in Ecology Letters shows while the ...

The widely used herbicide atrazine can convert male frogs into hermaphrodites (SN: 11/02/02, p. 275: More Frog Trouble: Herbicides may emasculate wild males). But what happens when a naturally ...