Hormones and Heredity: A Discussion of the Evolution of Adaptations and the Evolution of SpeciesCunningham, J. T. (Joseph Thomas)
Science
Hormones and Heredity: A Discussion of the Evolution of Adaptations and the Evolution of Species
Cunningham, J. T. (Joseph Thomas)
Endocrinology; Heredity; Hormones; Mendel's law
therefore, to say that these various organs and characters are the
expression of sex in the somatic cells.
As I pointed out in my _Sexual Dimorphism_ (1900), the common
characteristic of somatic sexual characters is their adaptive relation to
some function in the sexual habits of the species in which they occur.
There is no universal characteristic of sex except the difference between
the gametes and the reproductive organs (gonads) in which they are
produced. All other differences, therefore, including genital ducts and
copulatory or intromittent organs, are somatic. When we examine these
somatic differences we find that they can be classified according to their
relation to fertilisation and reproduction, including the care or
protection of the offspring. The precise classification is of no great
importance, but we may distinguish the following kinds to show the
chief functions to which the characters or organs are adapted.
1. GENITAL DUCTS AND INTROMITTENT ORGANS.--According to the theory of the
coelom which we owe to Goodrich, in all the coelomata the coelom is
primarily the generative cavity, on the walls of which the gametocytes are
situated, and the coelomic ducts are the original genital ducts. In
Vertebrates we find two such ducts in both sexes in the embryo, originally
formed apparently by the splitting of a single duct. In the male one of
these ducts becomes connected with the testis while the other degenerates:
the one which degenerates in the male forms the oviduct in the female,
while the one which is functional in the male degenerates in the female.
Intromittent organs are formed in all sorts of different ways in different
animals. In Elasmobranchs (sharks and skates) they are enlarged portions
of the pelvic fins, and therefore paired. In Lizards they are pouches of
the skin at the sides of the cloacal opening. In Mammals the single penis
is developed from the ventral wall of the cloaca. In Crustacea certain
appendages are used for this function. There are a great many animals,
from jelly-fishes to fishes and frogs, in which fertilisation is external,
and there are no intromittent organs at all.
2. ORGANS FOR, CAPTURING OR HOLDING THE FEMALE: for example, the
thumb-pads of the frog, and a modification of the foot in a water-beetle.
Certain organs on the head and pelvic fins of the Chimaeroid fishes are
believed to be used for this purpose.
3. WEAPONS.--Organs which are employed in combats between males for the
exclusive possession of the females. For example, antlers of stags, horns
of other Ruminants, tusks of elephants, spurs of cocks and Phasiamidae
generally, horns and outgrowths in males of Reptiles and many Beetles,
probably used for this purpose.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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