Hermaphrodites combine the male and female sex functions into a single individual, either sequentially or simultaneously. This simple fact means that they exhibit both similarities and differences in the way in which they experience, and respond to, sexual conflict compared to separate-sexed organisms. Here, we focus on clarifying how sexual conflict concepts can be adapted to apply to all anisogamous sexual systems and review unique or especially important aspects of sexual conflict in hermaphroditic animals. These include conflicts over the timing of sex change in sequential hermaphrodites, and in simultaneous hermaphrodites, over both sex roles and the postmating manipulation of the sperm recipient by the sperm donor. Extending and applying sexual conflict thinking to hermaphrodites can identify general evolutionary principles and help explain some of the unique reproductive diversity found among animals exhibiting this widespread but to date understudied sexual system. Conceptual and empirical work on sexual conflict is dominated by studies on gonochorists species with separate sexes e. The fundamental asymmetry from which sexual conflict emerges is ultimately rooted in the evolution of anisogamy, which may itself have resulted from a primordial sexual conflict over allocation to gamete provisioning. Specifically, the proto male sexual strategy of making more but smaller gametes—driven by proto sperm competition—likely forced the proto female sexual strategy into investing more resources per gamete Parker et al. In different species, the male and female sexual strategies can be distributed over individuals in various ways Hamilton ; Charnov ; Munday et al. In the most familiar—gonochorism—they are always confined to different individuals, namely, males and females, as exemplified by some of the best-studied animal groups e.


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SEXUAL CONFLICT THINKING IN HERMAPHRODITES
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For example, the great majority of tunicates , pulmonate snails, opisthobranch snails , earthworms , and slugs are hermaphrodites. Hermaphroditism is also found in some fish species and to a lesser degree in other vertebrates. Most plants are also hermaphrodites. Historically, the term hermaphrodite has also been used to describe ambiguous genitalia and gonadal mosaicism in individuals of gonochoristic species, especially human beings.
Mormons defintely play by a different rule set. She got engaged 3 months later. Too bad she couldn't handle the guilt and remorse.