Educator

Animal Reproduction

• The purpose of reproduction is to ensure the continuation of a species. Sexual reproduction between male and female allows the assortment of genes, and therefore variability within a species.

• In this Lesson, we’ll see that fertilization may be either external or internal. Aquatic and amphibian animals usually fertilize externally, using water as a medium in which the sperm swims to the egg. Terrestrial animals normally fertilize internally.

• The processes of spermatogenesis and oogenesis produce haploid sperm and eggs in the testes and ovaries respectively. We’ll see how the male and female reproductive organs of vertebrates are adapted to facilitate the union of sperm and egg.

• Vertebrate reproductive systems are under the control of an interacting group of hormones. We’ll look at these hormone interactions in the male and female reproductive systems of humans.