9 of the Weirdest Sperm Adaptations
You probably have a vague idea of what sperm does, but not all sperm are created equal, and some have even developed unique adaptations to get where ...
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[ Intro ] Most people have at least a passing familiarity with sperm. Like, you’re probably picturing a tadpole-like thing with a head and a wiggly tail. And that's a pretty good approximation of most mammalian swimmers. Sperm across the animal kingdom all have basically the same job: getting to the egg and fertilizing it. But they have the most diverse shapes and sizes of any cell type. That’s because competition doesn't end with finding a mate — sperm duke it out inside reproductive organs. And that can lead to some really weird adaptations! In fact, while researchers have described a lot of strange sperm, we don’t always have full explanations for how they came to exist. So here are 9 kinds of sperm that might make you think twice about what you know about reproduction. All...
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[ Intro ] Most people have at least a passing familiarity with sperm. Like, you’re probably picturing a tadpole-like thing with a head and a wiggly tail. And that's a pretty good approximation of most mammalian swimmers. Sperm across the animal kingdom all have basically the same job: getting to the egg and fertilizing it. But they have the most diverse shapes and sizes of any cell type. That’s because competition doesn't end with finding a mate — sperm duke it out inside reproductive organs. And that can lead to some really weird adaptations! In fact, while researchers have described a lot of strange sperm, we don’t always have full explanations for how they came to exist. So here are 9 kinds of sperm that might make you think twice about what you know about reproduction. All...
