Science Time: Normal is Relative. · 12:55am Jan 30th, 2018
I was on YouTube, watching Jacksepticeye play some Subnautica, when I noticed someone call the game devs lazy for not making male and female creatures for the game and instead choosing to make the lifeforms of Planet 4546B hermaphroditic. This irks me for reasons of being a geek and a dork. I love real science, and I love science fiction. Since a lot of people agree with that guy, It's up to me to educate at least some people on the many means of reproduction used by real creatures found on Earth.
The Subnautica devs are not lazy, they are in fact quite the opposite. Making the world like our own where most species reproduce sexually and utilize two different sexes to reproduce would be lazy. That's just cloning our world. The conditions that created life as we know it are the results of our planet specific geology and ecology. The ancient creatures which first emerged from the primordial ooze were shaped by the exact way our world was at the time, and the life which came after was shaped by the ways in which our world changed over time as well as by the way the other life around it changed over time.
Evolution is a symbiotic circle. The world and life shape the world and life.
From this you should understand that an alien world's life would be unique to that world. Not just in the "Claaldsiopods are only found on Proxima 3b." sense, but in the "On Proxima 3b, most life forms are ________." sense.
On Earth, most lifeforms reproduce sexually, and utilize two sexes to reproduce. Females are organisms which carry egg cells, males are organisms which produce sperm, which are activators for those egg cells. Or so you think because that's what the basic ass gloss-over education you get in standard k-12 gives you. While that description of males and females gives you a basic idea it's not nearly the full truth.
The key word in that paragraph is most. Not all life on our planet behaves that way. Hell, not all males on Earth posess a Y chromosome. That's not how this works for all life we share our world with. We're not talking about gender politics here. We are talking about biological science in respect to the MANY ways Earth-based lifeforms reproduce. Not all of them function like humans do. Links to wikipedia are provided for those who would like to know more.
CRITICAL NOTE: For the purpose of science, sex is the genetic makeup of the animal (Ie what it's got in its pants), whereas gender is the social roles that are appropriate for the sexes. (Yes, non-human animals have gendered social rolls. Almost every single species that has multiple sexes regardless of Class, Kingdom, or Family have male typical and female typical behaviors. And yes, there are examples in almost all of those same species of animals that go against the normal behaviors for their sex.)
Life is weird. Moving on.
Sexual reproduction is a biological process that creates a new organism by combining the genetic material of two organisms in a process that starts with meiosis, a specialized type of cell division. Each of two parent organisms contributes half of the offspring's genetic makeup by creating haploidgametes.
Most (but not all) organisms form two different types of gametes. In these anisogamous species, the two sexes are referred to as male (producing sperm or microspores) and female (producing ova or megaspores).
Other sexually reproducing species form a single type of gametes. In these isogamous species, the gametes are similar or identical in form (isogametes), but may have separable properties and then may be given other different names (see isogamy). Why? Because science is is complicated.
There are two primary ways sexual reproduction works:
Allogamy
Allogamy is the fertilization of the combination of gametes from two parents, generally the ovum from one individual with the spermatozoa of another. (In isogamous species, the two gametes will not be defined as either sperm or ovum.)
Autogamy
Autogamy or Self-fertilization, occurs in hermaphroditic organisms where the two gametes fused in fertilization come from the same individual. (Yes. This is a real way some species on Earth reproduce.)
The thing to note here is that if a species reproduces via Autogamy, then members of that species can literately have sex with themselves. Two individuals are NOT required for sexual reproduction. Only two gametes are required, and one individual can make both. Furthermore, if an individual makes both, it is 100% possible for that individual to sexually reproduce by itself.
You may be wondering "Is that what you call asexual reproduction? But the individual is having sex with itself, so how is it asexual?" No. An individual that self fertilizes via autogamy is NOT using asexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction isn't the ONLY form of reproduction. Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction by which offspring arise from a single organism, and inherit the genes of that parent only; it does not involve the fusion of gametes. It's compleatly different.
Asexual reproduction utilizes various methods:
Fission (one organism literally divides into two separate ones).
Budding (One organism sprouts growths that fall off and become separate organisms.)
Vegetative propagation (This one is complicated... Plants that make bulbs are an example.)
Sporogenesis (You know, spoors. Mushroom and stuff.)
Fragmentation (One organism cuts bits of itself off which grow into new organisms.)
Agamogenesis Any form of reproduction that does not involve a male gamete. (Yep, that's possible. Many ants are like this. At least one lizard is too.)
Parthenogenesis a form of agamogenesis in which an unfertilized egg develops into a new individual. (Lizards can do this too.)
Apomixis/Nucellar embryony (Plants are weird. Vegetative propagation used to be concitered this, but then someone was like "No, that's different." We're... still sorting plant sex out really.)
Oh and if that's not complicated enough for you, some species use a THIRD method called heterogamy. What's that? They can switch between sexual and asexual reproduction. Yup.
Let's give some example of Earth life that dosnt' reproduce like humans do (I'd say mammals but some mammals dont reproduce like humans either. Hi, platypus!)
The freshwater crustacean Daphnia reproduces by parthenogenesis in the spring to rapidly populate ponds, then switches to sexual reproduction as the intensity of competition and predation increases. This isn't even unique, the monogonont rotifers of the genus Brachionus, reproduce via cyclical parthenogenesis: at low population densities females produce asexually and at higher densities a chemical cue accumulates and induces the transition to sexual reproduction.
Garden snails are hermaphrodites which reproduce sexually via allogamy, but have both male and female organs and require another individual to reproduce with. During the act of sex both snails will penetrate the other and be penetrated at the same time and each will fertilize the other, leading to both later laying fertile eggs.
The desert grassland whiptail lizard (Aspidoscelis uniparens) is an all-female species of reptiles. They reproduce by parthenogenesis, but offspring do not necessarily have the same chromosomes as their mother. This is because the lizards start off with twice the amount of chromosomes as would be found in sexually reproducing individuals. Fun aside, these lizzies will actually hump each other while ovulating despite not actualy having sex. They also pick out partners to live with while ovulating and will randomly change between lizard-male-typical behaviors and lizard-female-typical behaviors in terms of general behavior when hanging out with their asexual "Humpbuddy". Despite this they don't change sex, they are always biological females. (Yes, this means that not all members of a given class of life reproduce or even exist in the same BASIC ways. It also means that sex is so awesome that asexual critters try to have it.)
Do NOT google image search this (You will want to carpet bomb the entirety of South America, just to be certain they are all dead), but the Suriname sea toad reproduces in a HORRIFIC way. During sex the female releases 3 to 10 eggs, which get embedded in the skin on her back by the male's movements. After implantation, the eggs sink into the skin and form pockets over a period of several days, eventually taking on the appearance of an irregular honeycomb. The embryos develop through to the tadpole stage inside these pockets, eventually emerging from the mother's back as fully developed toads, though they are less than an inch long (2 cm). Once they have emerged from their mother's back, the toads begin a largely solitary life.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Moving on...
While human science has yet to actually encounter an all-male species, there is a biological theory which shows how that could actually be a thing. On Earth. With Earth biology. There's a very uncommon method of reproduction called "sexual parasitism", wherein two gametes are necessary to produce offspring, but only one gamete's nuclear DNA is passed down the generations. There are three broad forms of this: androgenesis, where the sperm contributes all of the offspring's genome; gynogenesis, where the egg contributes all of the offspring's genome; and hybridogenesis, where both egg and sperm contribute to the offspring's genome (hence hybridization), but all the offspring are the parasitic sex and only the parasitic sex's set of chromosomes is used when the offspring makes gametes. In theory, an androgenetic species could arise that was entirely male. It would survive solely by using the eggs of related species to make more males. This could exist somewhere on our planet right now, we dont know. Humans have yet to discover all species we share this rock with.
Given all of those different ways that EARTH life reproduces simply saying "Most lifeforms on this alien planet utilize sexual reproduction via the allogamy of two individuals who only produce a single type of gametes each." is SUPER lazy. Subnautica's devs did an alien world correctly. The life found there is noticeably different from our own while at the same time being noticeably similar to our own.
Also most people have no idea about the many ways Earth life is super diverse in terms of basic function. Pay attention in science class. it's there for you to learn about your world, your place in the cosmos, and the way things work.
Oh, and if you're writing a story where Equestria is NOT a version of Earth, feel free to use this knowledge to justify absolutely anything "weird" you want to do with ponies in terms of reproduction, sexes, or whatever. Heck, futapones can make prefect sense biologically.
If you want to get really "wierd" ponies could be like clownish and be born male, but over time develop into females, with futapones being the in between stage of this process (and you could have some get "stuck" at that stage. This happens to some species that can change their sex at will IRL.)
Would this be super weird from a human prospective? Yeah! Obviously. But it's all totally legit as far as nature cares. Nature does far weirder things. Nature IS rule 34.
My point is you shouldn't be lazy when designing a world. Make it interesting. Make it different from our own world in at least a few different ways. There's plenty of potential in nature for different ways for life to be. Even on Earth.
I've learned more science in this one post than I have after 3 weeks of Environmental Studies.
4784805 School is sort of a scam IMO. Real education is self-taught. Go out there and just read Wikipedia. It may not be the most accurate thing in the world but you'll learn more there than you did in k-12, if you're American.
4784808
Most of the useful stuff I've learned is from MLP, video games, and a few select comics.
Did you know that oxygen concentrated above 21% purity is poisonous to Humans? It'll absorb electrons from your body that results in cell membranes being melted and can make the Capillary veins in your eyes explode, making you go blind?
4784817 I did know that. Did you know that if we took the nitrogen out of our atmosphere, almost everything would rust near instantly?
4784834
And a normal fire would explode.
Found this with a search for [type of gecko with no males] there are others that only reproduce this way at times. The Komodo dragon is one example
There are about 50 species of lizard and 1 species of snake that reproduce solely through parthenogenesis (obligate parthenogenesis).
From Wikipedia
I like to think ponies reproduce by budding.
4784918 They gain more floof, which drops off and become pones. Flufflepuff is simply a sterile pone.
4784907 Yeah, lizards are interesting in how diversely their Class can reproduce.
4784933
the snuggling helps exchange genetic material.
Thanks for the lecture, meep.
4785106 Sorry
This is a passion issue for me. My work here uses an existing universe, so you dont see much of how I like to do worldbuilding in terms of fundamentals of a world and... Yeah :P
I've seen vids of the Suriname Toad, it's actually quite interesting because the eggs getting imbedded in the female's back actually helps its young survive during their tadpole stage as they're prey for creatures like Piranhas and Arhipima
4785157
Don’t apologize.
4785267 It is most assuredly interesting and fascinating. It's also god damn horrifying to watch one give birth. At least it is for me.