Posted on 09/10/2006 6:49:56 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
IT is the ultimate in peer group pressure – coral reef fish that can change their sex depending on who they hang out with, scientists have discovered.
A recent study by a team of Australian and American scientists have found changing sex is common among coral reef fish such as the juvenile bluehead wrasse.
Dr Philip Munday, from Townsville's James Cook University, said the wrasse had adopted the unusual strategy so that each fish could increase its chances of breeding within a complex social structure.
"It turns out that social effects are really important to whether a bluehead wrasse becomes a male or a female when it is young," Dr Munday said.
"These fish are very sensitive to their social surroundings, which ultimately determine whether they will become male or female."
The study, by Dr Munday and colleagues from the University of California, Santa Barbara, was published last month in the science journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
Dr Munday, a researcher at the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and JCU's School of Marine and Tropical Biology, said the fish began life as tiny larvae, which had neither male nor female characteristics.
He said tests found young fish raised in groups of three were more likely to turn into a male than those raised alone.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
Sounds more like a good example of evolutionary adaptability.
Reefer Madness!
(Note to Dasher...Fire Island is a very famous beach near NY City known for its homosexuals...Provincetown is the favorite summer getaway spot for Boston's homosexuals.)
Thanks for explaining! An island of homosexuals??? Might give that a miss...
Hey,if you ever get to New York,just take the "A" train from Grand Central Station heading toward Brooklyn and you'll be there in no time.
Only kidding,actually.All I know is that it's very close to the city.
As he described it he was hiking to many of "The Thousand Lakes" Region of Minnesota peeking up a particular specie of fish. Actually he was performing DNA analysis of a particular fish which his Prof suspected could "change their sex" should an overabundance of a particular gender was present. The DNA showed that certain "new lakes" had a fish population where a fish was caught by a bird in one lake and while flying to its nest dropped the fish, OOPS! The fish landed in another lake where there weas one other fish of its specie but alas both were boys. So...they drew cards and winner got to change sex!
This "Discovery" is nothing new.
This is not uncommon behavior in fish. At least clownfish. They can and do change sex.
And you thought NEMO was a harmless movie bwahahahahaha.......................... ;-)
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