What's a hermaphrodite?

Question

Does hermaphrodites lives with the same lifespan like an average human?

Answer 1

A hermaphrodite is born with both male and female sexual organs. They have average lifespans.

Answer 2

A hermaphrodite is a person who, by a genetic accident, is born with both male and female sex organs. I don't know the details of how this works, but many years ago I saw a photograph that appeared to be legitimate (this is before PhotoShop) showing a teenager with fully developed female breasts and male genitalia. If there were also female genitalia, they were not visible in the photo.

Answer 3

Hermaphrodite is one having both male and female sexual characteristics and organs

Answer 4

Organisms having male and female reproductive organs within the same body, these are lower animals like earthworm and they don't have such a longer life span.

Answer 5

Hemaphrodite is a thing thats is both sexes, usually [but not always] has both types of sexual organs that males and females individually have. [But can be deemed hormonally hemaphrodite, in some cases when large amounts of male hormones show up in a female athelete say for example, and she has to compete with the males!]

humans can be hemaphrodite (they usually choose which sex they want to be known as)

plants can be hemaphrodite also ie have male and female flowers on them and pollenate themselves and produce seeds

Answer 6

Should be... Having a gender mixup does not guarantee nor implicate a longer or shorter life...

Answer 7

In zoology and botany, a hermaphrodite is an organism that possesses both male and female sex organs during its life[1]. In many species, hermaphroditism is a common part of the life-cycle, particularly in some asexual animals and some plants. Generally, hermaphroditism occurs in the invertebrates, although it occurs in a fair number of fish, and to a lesser degree in other vertebrates. Typically, in hermaphrodites belonging to a species in which hermaphroditism is not the norm (humans, for example), reproduction is not possible, but there are some instances in which sperm or ova are capable of conceiving offspring. On very rare occasions, such a hermaphrodite can even impregnate itself, but this will result in complications, such as the offspring having identical DNA to its parent. See Simultaneous Hermaphrodites below.

The term "hermaphrodite" has historically been used to describe people with ambiguous genitalia or biological sex. The broader term intersex is often used and is preferred by many such individuals and medical professionals.[2] However, some of these people do not like the connotations and misunderstanding of the word "intersexed" and thus prefer to use hermaphrodite instead.[citation needed]In animals

[edit] Sequential hermaphrodites
Sequential hermaphrodites are organisms born as one sex which later change into the other sex, and can only function as one sex at one time. A few species in this group can sex change multiple times, but they can only function as one sex at a time.

Protandry: When the organism starts as a male, and changes sex to a female later in life.
Example: The Clownfish (Genus Amphiprion) are colorful reef fish found living in symbiosis with anemones. Generally one anemone contains a 'harem', consisting of a large female, a small reproductive male, and usually smaller non-reproductive males. If the female is removed, the reproductive male will sex change into a female, and the largest of the non-reproductive males will mature and become reproductive. It has been shown that fishing pressure actually is causing a change in when the switch from male to female occurs, since fishermen naturally prefer to catch the larger fish. The populations are generally changing sex at a smaller size, due to artificial selection.
Protogyny: When the organism starts as a female, and changes sex to a male later in life.
Example: Wrasses (Family Labridae) are reef fish that are all Protogynous, but have two different life strategies:
For some species, they all start out as females, and when they get large enough they will sex change to males.
Other species start out as females or males (initial phase), and either may shift to become a supermale (terminal phase male). The females and the initial phase males have similar colorations. The supermale is usually brightly colored, and there is only one in a given area of the reef. This supermale dominates the other wrasses of the species, having the choice of females to mate with. When the supermale dies, the largest wrasse in the area, male or female, becomes the new supermale. It has identical DNA as the parent.

[edit] Simultaneous hermaphrodites
A simultaneous hermaphrodite (or synchronous hermaphrodite) is an organism that has both male and female sexual organs at the same time as an adult. Usually, self-fertilization does not occur.

Hamlets, unlike other fish, seem quite at ease mating in front of divers, allowing observations in the wild to occur readily. They do not practice self-fertilization, but when they find a mate, the pair takes turns between which one acts as the male and which acts as the female through multiple matings, usually over the course of several nights.
Earthworms are another example of synchronous hermaphrodite. Although they possess ovaries and testes, they have a protective mechanism against self fertilization and can only function as a single sex at one time. Sexual reproduction occurs when two worms meet and exchange gametes, copulating on damp, wet nights during warm seasons. Fertilized eggs are protected by a cocoon, which is buried on or near the surface of the ground.
Banana Slugs are one more synchornous hermaphrodite example. Mating with a partner is most desirable, as the genetic material of the offspring is varied, but if mating with a partner is not possible, self-fertilization is practiced. The male part of an adult banana slug is quite large in proportion to its size, as well as compared to the female part. It is possible that while mating, banana slugs can get stuck together. If a substantial amount of wiggling doesn't do the trick, the slug's male part will be bit off (slugs do not have mouths like humans, though - rather, they have a radula). If a banana slug has lost its male member, it can still self-fertilize, making its hermaphroditic quality an invaluable adaptation.

[edit] Gonadal dysgenesis
Gonadal dysgenesis is a type of intersexuality formerly known as "true hermaphroditism". It occurs in about one percent of mammals, including humans, but it is extremely rare for both sets of organs to be functional; usually neither set is functional. In humans, these manifestations are often altered (sometimes only cosmetically) to resemble standard male or female anatomy shortly after birth - often without the parents' knowledge or (informed) consent.


[edit] Fetal hermaphroditism in humans
Sigmund Freud (based on work by his associate Wilhelm Fliess) held fetal hermaphroditsm to be a fact of the physiological development of humans. He was so certain of this, in fact, that he based much of his theory of innate on that assumption. This was later revealed to be untrue (see sexual differentiation).


[edit] In plants
Hermaphrodite is used in botany to describe a flower that has both staminate (male, pollen-producing) and carpelate (female, seed-producing) parts that are self fertile or self pollenizing. Hermaphrodism in plants is more complex than in animals because plants can have hermaphroditic flowers as described, or unisexual flowers with both male and female types developing on the same individual—a closer analogy to animal hermaphrodism. However, this latter condition constitutes monoecy in plants, and is especially common to the conifers, while occurring in only about 7% of angiosperm species (Molnar, 2004).





[edit] Etymology
The term "hermaphrodite" derives from Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite in Greek mythology, who was fused with a nymph, Salmacis, resulting in one possessing physical traits of both sexes. Thus Hermaphroditus was, by the modern terminology, a simultaneous hermaphrodite. The mythological figure of Tiresias, who figures in the Oedipus cycle as well as the Odyssey, was a sequential hermaphrodite, having been changed from a man to a woman and back by the gods.