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Article: Even nemo!(Animal Angles)(hermaphrodites)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- October 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Carus Publishing Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Survival of the species starts at the cellular level, and for some animals that means changing sex. They are, to use the technical term, sequential hermaphrodites--functioning first as one sex, then the other.
Some are uncommon creatures, including a variety of fish, echinoderms, crustaceans, and mollusks. Then there's Nemo, the cartoon clownfish of movie fame.
Clownfish are "protandrous"--normally starting life as males. When they get larger and can provide the energy it takes to produce eggs, some males change into females. If the female of a breeding pair dies, the male rapidly changes into a female and their largest offspring becomes a breeding male. ...