Hermaphrodite bird

2003/03/25 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Biologia
• Genetika
• Zoologia

What happened at Rockefeller University in New York is surprising: a hermaphrodite bird is born, which has the two sex chromosomes, both male and female. According to the experts, this is a very special case because it shows the superiority of genes against hormones, that is, the culprits of the sex of the bird are not hormonal emanations but genes.

The bird has the body divided into two, half male and half female, for example, one ovary on one side and one testicle on the other. But not only that: all cells located in the right half of the body have the male chromosome and those on the left have the female chromosome.

The interest of researchers now resides in the brain of the bird, which has been killed to investigate the morphology of the brain.