A little queer natural history / Josh L. Davis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davis, Josh L., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Biodiversity.

Homosexuality in animals.

Sexual behavior in animals.

Environmental sex determination.

Plants, Sex in.

Physical Description:

128 pages : color illustrations ; 20 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2024.

Summary:

From a pair of male swans raising young to splitgill mushrooms with over 23,000 mating types, sex in the natural world is wonderfully diverse. Josh L. Davis considers how, for many different organisms--animals, plants, and fungi included--sexual reproduction and sex determination rely on a surprisingly complex interaction among genes, hormones, environment, and chance. As Davis introduces us to fascinating biological concepts like parthenogenesis (virgin birth), monoecious plants (individuals with separate male and female flowers), and sex-reversed genitals, we see turtle hatchlings whose sex is determined by egg temperature; butterflies that embody male and female biological tissue in the same organism; and a tomato that can reproduce three different ways at the same time. Davis also reveals animal and plant behaviors in nature that researchers have historically covered up or explained away, like queer sex among Adélie penguins or bottlenose dolphins, and presents animal behaviors that challenge us to rethink our assumptions and prejudices. Featuring fabulous sex-fluid fishes and ant, wasp, and bee queens who can choose both how they want to have sex and the sex of their offspring, A Little Queer Natural History offers a larger lesson: that the diversity we see in our own species needs no justification and represents just a fraction of what exists in the natural world.

Contents:

Adélie penguin: Homosexual couples

Mangrove killifish: Reproducing with itself

Duck-billed dinosaur: Bias in names

New Mexico whiptail lizard: Parthenogenesis

Morpho butterfly: Divided down the middle

Western lowland gorilla: Queer behavior in apes

Domestic sheep: Can animals be gay?

Saharan cypress: Androgenesis

Bicolor parrotfish: Sex-fluid fishes

Swans: Male couples as parents

Green sea turtle: Temperature-dependent sex determination

Giraffe: Homosexuality in the mainstream

Common ash: Sexual spectrum

Common cockchafer: Historical homosexuality

European yew: Sex change

European eel: Environment-dependent sex determination

White-throated sparrow: Beyond the binary

Spotted hyena: Female-led societies

Western gull: Lesbian mothers

Common bottlenose dolphin: Explaining the gay away

Common pill woodlouse: Bacteria-dependent sex determination

Bluegill sunfish: Do animals have gender?

Common pheasant: Out-sized influence

Splitgill mushroom: Thousands of sexes

Chinese shell ginger: Temporal sex

Cane toad: Intersex animals

Moss mites: Ancient asexuals

Dungowan bush tomato: Changeable sex

Barklice: Sex-reversed genitals.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226837031

0226837033

OCLC:

1420623519

Publisher Number:

90100761561