Question: Why do we not have one sex

Sakshi Sharda answered on 12 Mar 2018:

Great question.

It’s not possible to have one single sex in humans, although in some insects, you can still find it. It’s because in humans and many other animals, we need both the male and female to reproduce to produce an offspring.

Animals have always had many parasites on them. Having parasites means that you have to get rid of them, otherwise one can die. When humans reproduce, we get information from the mother and father in the form of chromosomes. Chromosomes are long threads with lots of information on them. When chromosomes from the mum and dad come together, they mix and match together. This mixing creates more good combinations of information from both the parents to better deal with parasites. That’s why we have two sexes, so that these new combinations can be created and the offspring can survive. If we don’t have new combinations, from the parents, our race would not be able to survive.

Isn’t is amazing that parasites have lead to the evolution of the two sexes?

It’s a great question!!