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As if two sexes weren’t enough, the white-throated sparrow will surprise you by evolving to have four different sexes.
Most organisms are divided into two sexes, “male” and “female”. Each sex is characterized by many different morphological, anatomical, and physiological features.
White-throated sparrows have evolved to have “four sexes”. (Photo: Getty).
However, sex in some animals can be complex, as exemplified by White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) live in the subarctic region
For this bird, Any individual can mate with only 1/4 of the species, instead of the usual 1/2.What happened to this bird?
To clarify the above question, two Canadian biologists, Elaina Tuttle and Rusty Gonser, researched and discovered strange genetics in the native white-throated sparrow.
Accordingly, A genetic mutation occurred in this species causing a large portion of their chromosomes to be flipped.resulting in only four genotypes that can successfully reproduce with the other basic genotypes.
Birds evolved in such a way that those with white stripes on their heads only mate with those with brown stripes and vice versa. (Photo: Getty).
Normally, animals would evolve to increase their reproductive success, allowing them to produce offspring with better-selected genes. However, the opposite happened with the white-throated sparrow, when They choose to make reproduction more difficult.
Specifically, the species’ two sets of chromosomes evolved into separate subgroups, which would determine which birds could successfully mate with the rest.
Tuttle and Gonser looked deeper into these inversions and found that they effectively shuffled genes to create two opposite forms.
Accordingly, they have different appearances, including birds with white stripes on their heads, and those with brown stripes. Despite the differences, white-striped individuals only mate with brown stripes and vice versa.
“It’s as if this bird has four sexes. That is, An individual can only mate with 1/4 of the population.“, Christopher Balakrishnan, an evolutionary biologist at East Carolina University, said. “In nature, very few species choose to have more than two sexes because it reduces their reproductive rate.”
According to Dan Tri