BBC Wildlife Magazine

Sex cells: egg and sperm

hy do so many species have two sexes? Well, it’s partly because having separate male and female body parts, each dedicated to making either sperm or eggs, helps prevent inbreeding. Those two reproductive cells or ‘gametes’ each contribute half the genetic material (DNA) needed to build a new organism, and they share similar features due to common functions in an embryo: eggs nourish, sperm fertilise.

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