- Author: [[Wikipedia]] - Full Title: Hermaphrodite - Wikipedia - Tags:: [[Hermaphrodite]] - URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermaphrodite - ### Highlights first synced by [[Readwise]] [[2020-09-16]] - Historically, the term hermaphrodite has also been used to describe ambiguous genitalia and gonadal mosaicism in individuals of gonochoristic species, especially human beings. The word intersex has come into usage for humans, since the word hermaphrodite is considered to be misleading and stigmatizing, as well as "scientifically specious and clinically problematic." - The percentage of animal species that are hermaphroditic is about 5%. - Sequential hermaphrodites (dichogamy) occur in species in which the individual is born as one sex, but can later change into the opposite sex. This contrasts simultaneous hermaphrodites, in which an individual may possess fully functional male and female genitalia. Sequential hermaphroditism is common in fish (particularly teleost fish) and many gastropods (such as the common slipper shell), and some flowering plants. Sequential hermaphrodites can only change sex once. Sequential hermaphroditism can best be understood in terms of behavioral ecology and evolutionary life history theory, as described in the size-advantage mode first proposed by Michael T. Ghiselin which states that if an individual of a certain sex could significantly increase its reproductive success after reaching a certain size, it would be to their advantage to switch to that sex. - A simultaneous (or synchronous) hermaphrodite (or homogamous) is an adult organism that has both male and female sexual organs at the same time. Self-fertilization often occurs. - Hermaphroditus, the "son" of the Greek god Hermes and the goddess Aphrodite, origin of the word "hermaphrodite"