bbc.co.uk navigation

Three anemone clownfish swimming amongst anemones

Hermaphroditic

Hermaphrodites have both male and female sex organs, either throughout their lives (homgamy) or that develop and mature at different points in their life cycle (dichogamy). Most dichogamous species, including many flowers and fish, change sex only once in their development. These organism still need another individual at the opposite stage for fertilisation. Homgamous species may be capable of self-fertilisation, but generally two individuals exchange sex cells and both are fertilised.

Watch video clips from past programmes (2 clips)

In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.

Plants with this adaptation

Animals with this behaviour

Snails and slugs

Clitellata

About

In biology, a hermaphrodite is an organism that has reproductive organs normally associated with both male and female sexes.

Many taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrates) do not have separate sexes[citation needed]. In these groups, hermaphroditism is a normal condition, enabling a form of sexual reproduction in which both partners can act as the "female" or "male". For example, the great majority of pulmonate snails, opisthobranch snails and slugs are hermaphrodites. Hermaphroditism is also found in some fish species and to a lesser degree in other vertebrates. Most plants are also hermaphrodites.

Historically, the term hermaphrodite has also been used to describe ambiguous genitalia and gonadal mosaicism in individuals of gonochoristic species, especially human beings. The word hermaphrodite entered the English lexicon (language) in the 15th century, derived from the Greek Hermaphroditos a combination of the names of the gods Hermes (male) and Aphrodite (female). Recently, the word intersex has come into preferred usage for humans, since the word hermaphrodite is considered to be misleading and stigmatizing, as well as "scientifically specious and clinically problematic."

Read more at Wikipedia

This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.

BBC News about Hermaphroditic

BBC © 2012 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.