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Watching hours upon hours of worm having sex ( yes — essentially twist pornography ) , has helped scientist figure out why some flatworms have simple , thin , squiggly spermatozoan , while others sport larger sex cells with bristles and a antenna in the front .
The Modern findings molt light on the development of allanimal sperm , the researchers say .
Some hermaphroditic Macrostomum lignano flatworms copulate, then suck out unwanted sperm. These worms' sperm have bristles to help them stay in place. The sperm of related worms, which don’t suck out sperm, have no bristles. In fact, the bristles seem to have disappeared twice, independently, when worms adopted the alternative mating strategy. This led researchers to conclude that sex shapes sperm, which are the most diverse type of animal cell.
In the survey , a squad that admit Lukas Schärer and his married woman Dita Vizoso , both of the University of Basel in Switzerland , link up the evolutionary red of the bristles — which they think keep the sperm lodged in the female generative parcel — as well as the feelers , to the adoption of a newfangled mating strategy that renders the bristle useless .
Schärer described the methodological analysis that lead to their discovery : " You take time - lapse motion picture and sit there and wait at worms mating for some hours , " Schärer said . [ Video : Worm Sex & Sperm ]
Some were more complaisant than others , mating all the time , while other respectable specimens did n’t get down to business when locate together , he said . [
