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Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist

otago.ac.nz

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Re: Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist

#51

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

delecti wrote: post #43
HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if it could happen in humans, but apparently it has never been observed. This phenomena is called bilateral gynandromorphism and is where the entire body shows both male and female traits (along a bilateral split). You're probably thinking of hermaphrodites (e.g. she-males) which is where the animal only has reproductive organs of both sexes.

The term "shemale" is usually confined to porn, where it refers to transgender women who still have their penis, rather than anything related to hermaphrodites.

Thanks - I didn't realize!

Re: Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist

#52

Post by thfuran »

andsoitis wrote: post #20
guerrilla wrote: post #3

I thought they meant hermaphrodite but then saw the picture. They mean luterally half, right down the middle.

> I thought they meant hermaphrodite The case in the article is gynandromorphism. Intersex is not necessarily a form of gynandromorphism. Intersex refers to individuals who have biological characteristics that don't fit neatly into the two biological sexes of male and female. This can include variations in chromosomes, gonads, hormones, or genitals. Gynandromorphism is a specific type of chimera, where the individual…

>Occurs mainly in species of animals with strong sexual dimorphism

Occurs or is noticed?

Re: Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist

#53

Post by retrac »

calamari4065 wrote: post #37
tromp wrote: post #17

> captured on film The article makes no further mentions of actual film, so presumably the phrase now also applies to digital photography?!

Same way you still dial a phone or roll up a window.

There's a term for that: linguistic skeuomorph. With a stylus on a tablet was how the ancient Romans and Sumerians wrote. That imagery and history is evoked when those words are used to refer to portable computers. They were chosen by analogy with historical understanding. It's like when you pattern the plastic tiles to make the floor look stone or wood. There are iconographic skeuomorphs too, like when someone born in the 21st century taps a floppy disk icon on their computer to copy data, when they have never seen a physical floppy disk.

Re: Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist

#54

Post by andsoitis »

thfuran wrote: post #52
andsoitis wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I thought they meant hermaphrodite The case in the article is gynandromorphism. Intersex is not necessarily a form of gynandromorphism. Intersex refers to individuals who have biological characteristics that don't fit neatly into the two biological sexes of male and female. This can include variations in chromosomes, gonads, hormones, or genitals. Gynandromorphism is a specific type of chimera, where the individual…

>Occurs mainly in species of animals with strong sexual dimorphism Occurs or is noticed?

I’ll just quote Wikipedia directly:

“Gynandromorphism has been noted in Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) since the 1700s.[1][2][3] It has also been observed in crustaceans, such as lobsters and crabs, in spiders,[4] ticks,[5] flies,[6] locusts,[7] crickets,[8] dragonflies,[9] ants,[10][11] termites,[12] bees,[13] lizards,[14] snakes,[15] rodents,[16][17] and birds.[18][19][20][21][22] It is generally rare but reporting depends on ease of detecting it (whether a species is strongly sexually dimorphic) and how well-studied a region or organism is. For example, up until 2023 gynandromorphism had been reported in more than 40 bird species, but the vast majority of these are from the Palearctic and Nearctic, indicating that it likely is underreported in parts of the world that are not as biologically well-studied.”

Re: Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist

#57

Post by novemp »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #11
asylteltine wrote: post #5

Which we can all agree is both cool and a biological anomaly… much like it can happen in humans.

You should probably read the article first, before jumping into politics: “This particular example of bilateral gynandromorphy – male one side and female the other – shows that, as in several other species, either side of the bird can be male or female. “The phenomenon arises from an error during female cell division to produce an egg, followed by double-fertilization by two sperm,” he explains.

[dead]

Re: Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist

#58

Post by giopl »

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #50
NikkiA wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can, and does, I used to know a bilateral chimera, you could clearly tell which side was which by hair colour, she identified as female. Btw, 'she-male' a) does not refer to hermaphrodites, b) is an offensive term, and has been considered offensive for around 30 years, so no 'modern wokism' retort required.

No offense intended by "she-male" - it's used in the porn industry where it's presumably meant to attract a certain audience rather than be offensive. I didn't realize that these are (always? usually?) trans women.

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