this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 25 points 3 months ago (14 children)

Serious question: how are male and female defined, and why does the sea horse that gets pregnant count as male and not female?

[–] flora_explora@beehaw.org 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

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

E: the wiki article goes on to talk about pregnant sea horses, so yeah, they are pregnant and they do get impregnated by female sea horses!

[–] Shhalahr@beehaw.org 5 points 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.

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