Everything about Mating totally explained
In
biology,
mating is the pairing of opposite-
sex or
hermaphroditic internal fertilization animals for copulation and, in
social animals, also to raise their
offspring. Mating methods include
random mating,
disassortative mating,
assortative mating, or a
mating pool.
In some birds, for example, it includes
nest-building and
feeding offspring. The human practice of making
domesticated animals mate and of
artificially inseminating them is part of
animal husbandry.
Copulation is the union of the
sex organs of two
sexually reproducing animals for
insemination and subsequent
internal fertilization. The two individuals may be of opposite sexes or
hermaphroditic, as is the case with, for example,
snails.
In some
terrestrial arthropods, including
insects representing
basal (primitive)
phylogenetic clades, the male deposits
spermatozoa on the substrate, sometimes stored within a special structure, and
courtship involves inducing the female to take up the sperm package into her genital opening; there's no actual copulation. In groups such as
dragonflies and many
spiders, males extrude sperm into secondary copulatory structures removed from their genital opening, which are then used to inseminate the female (in dragonflies, it's a set of modified
sternites on the second abdominal segment; in spiders, it's the male
pedipalps). In advanced groups of insects, the male uses its
aedeagus, a structure formed from the terminal segments of the abdomen, to deposit sperm directly (though sometimes in a capsule called a "
spermatophore") into the female's reproductive tract.
Many other animals reproduce sexually with external fertilization, including many
basal vertebrates. Many vertebrates (such as
reptiles, some
fish, and most
birds) reproduce with internal fertilization through
cloacal copulation (see also
hemipenis), while
mammals copulate
vaginally.
In
humans, unlike most animals, copulation may or may not be related to reproduction. In most cases people copulate for pleasure; this behaviour is also seen in some animal species, for example
chimpanzees and especially
bonobos are known to copulate when the female isn't fertile, presumably for pleasure, which in turn strengthens social bonds. See also
sexual intercourse and
human sexual behavior.
Like in animals, mating in other eukaryotes, such as
plants and
fungi, denotes sexual conjugation. However, in vascular plants this is mostly achieved without physical contact between mating individuals (see
pollination), and in some cases, for example, in fungi no distinguishable male or female organs exist (see
isogamy); however,
mating types in some fungal species are somewhat analogous to
sexual dimorphism in animals, and determine whether or not two individual isolates can mate.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mating'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://mating.totallyexplained.com">Mating Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
