you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]AllInOne[S] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Thanks for the analogy! So from what I understand given your analogy, the potential to produce eggs makes a baby calf female and the potential to produce sperm makes a baby calf male, did I get it correctly?

[–]BenderRodriguez 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

In short, yes. The fact that their potentials are opposite comes directly from the fact that they are of two different sexes. If calves were sexless until they became adults, there'd be no way of knowing at all which calves would grow up to be able to perform whichever reproductive role. The fact that you can easily tell simply by examining their physical bodies means that they're of different sexes, even as juveniles.