For one of the species I'm working on, I want to have it so that they're trimorphic, with the three categories being sexual male (produces sperm and can only reproduce sexually), sexual female (produces eggs and can only reproduce sexually), and asexual female (produces eggs and can reproduce only asexually through parthenogenesis).
I also want their sexual development to be epigenetic, so when they are born there's no way to know what sex they will develop as then based on their environment (specifically, the reproductive odds for a member of each sex in their environment) sexual differentiation begins at puberty. So a child who grows up in a community that's mostly sexual males would most likely develop as a sexual female, a child who grows up in a community that's mostly sexual female community would most likely develop as a sexual male, and a child born into a community with bad sexual reproductive odds would most likely develop as an asexual female.
Not sure if that explanation made sense, but hopefully it conveys the basics of how I'm hoping reproduction for this species will work.
There are a few questions I'm still researching as I'm trying to figure out the biological logistics of this species:
- Are there any trimorphic animal species? So far, most articles I've found mostly talk about trimorphic plant species, though I've seen some mention of a trimorphic species of butterfly.
- Could sexual development be epigenetic?
- What sort of animal class do you think would make the most sense given the described characteristics? I don't plan on having them be exactly like any Earth animal, after all they evolved separately from life on Earth, but I am trying to find animals I might be able to base them on in some way. I'm thinking they may be reptilian (mainly because of the parthenogenesis) but I'm not sure, I also want them to have some human like qualities, specifically the ability to write and use technology.
I'd anyone knows the answer to any of the above questions (or really just has any speculation about it) or has any resources where I could learn about trimorphism, epigenetics, or parthenogenesis in more depth I would really appreciate that. Thanks!
I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.
Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.
Do your worst!
I'm surprised it hasn't decade.
For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.
I said "hey look, an escaPEA"
No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!
Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂
It really does, I swear!
They’re on standbi
Pilot on me!!
Nothing, he was gladiator.
