Re: Dicussion on 'hermaphrodite' (was Of accents & dialects

Quoting R A Brown <ray@...>:

[snip]
> In ancient mythology, Hermaphroditos, the offspring Hermes & Aphrodite,
> had the fully working equipment of both sexes. Is this condition found
> among higher orders of animals? Is hermaphoditism (as opposed to
> intersexualism) attested among humans, or are such people the stuff of
> legend & myth?

Well, there is a very rare medical condition known as "true hermaphroditism"
where an individual has both testicular and ovarian tissue (either one gonad of
each sort, or one or two "ovotestes" combining both tissue types). Sometimes
they can produce functional gametes of both types. They still won't have two
sets of external genitalia, however, and AFAIK there are no known cases of that.
(Given how male and female external genitalia arise from the same embryonal
structures, producing both sets would require some truly curious developmental
anomaly.)

Some species of fish are "sequential hermaphrodites", meaning they can change
their sex according to circumstances. Hamlets, according to various websites,
are synchronous hermaphrodites, but the descriptions of mating behaviour on said
websites rather gives the impression they're sequential hermaphrodites that
happen to change sex very fast - they mate, change roles, and mate again.

--
Andreas Johansson