VETINDEX

Periódicos Brasileiros em Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia

p. 548-551

An ovotestis event in the gonochoric sea urchin Loxechinus albus (Echinodermata: Echinoidea)

Olivares, AlbertoAvila-Poveda, Omar Hernando

Unusual or accidental cases of ovotestis in regular gonochoric species has been observed in several sea urchin species that led to indicate that they are hermaphrodites ( Boolootian and Moore, 1956 ; Gonor, 1973 ; Ijiri et al., 1981 ; Carrasco, 2007 ), however, broadly some of these events are isolated and most likely there are not hermaphrodites as mode of sexuality, instead is probable it refers to sexual differentiation or isolated situation of sex change. Classifying the sexual mode (sexuality) of an animal can be much more challenging. Particularly, the condition of having or produce of both male and female gametes by the same gonad (ovotestis or syngonic) occurs as a process (sexual differentiation), as well as a mode of sexuality (hermaphroditism) over lifespan of the invertebrates ( Ghiselin, 1969 ; Warner, 1975 ). Unfortunately this condition is usually conceptualized without regard to size or life stage of the animal, which creates confusion between the process of ‘sexual differentiation’ that, occurs during juvenile or sub-adult stage and the mode of sexuality ‘hermaphroditism’ that is reached only in adulthood ( Strathmann and Strathmann, 1982 ; Wasson and Newberry, 1997 ).(AU)

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