GC: Do male seahorses, and their male relatives, really get "pregnant" and "give birth"?

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[–]loveSloaneDebate King 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

You realize that seahorses aren’t human and humans aren’t seahorses, right?

[–]FlanJam 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'm not an expert so take what I say with a grain of salt. But what I understand is the female seahorses provides the eggs, and the males carry them to birth. If they wanna call that pregnancy then sure, but that doesn't say anything about human reproduction.

I also wonder, according to QT logic does "rock pregnancy" exist? Clownfish lay their eggs on rocks, and the rocks carry the eggs to birth. So are the rocks pregnant? Obviously I'm being silly lol. But the point is, its just a semantic game. They're using the word "pregnancy" to describe two different reproductive processes of two different species. They're comparing apples to oranges.

[–]peakingatthemomentTranssexual (natal male), HSTS 9 insightful - 2 fun9 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I think male seahorses are neat, but I don’t really know how they fit into this debate.

[–]kwallio 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think the real question is what relevance sea horse biology has to human biology. As a biologist I have to tell you that there is a wide variety of reproductive strategies out there and focusing on one group to make a political point while ignoring others is not a great idea. I think most biologists would say that its not a real pregnancy because there is no placenta. Its more like a pouch where the eggs can be protected while they develop.

[–]CatbugMods allow rape victim blaming in this sub :) 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yeah they do. What does that have to do with human sex? Is there some case of a male receiving eggs from a woman and gestating? Or is it just some silly tangent thrown about in an attempt to obfuscate how humans reproduce?

[–]MezozoicGaygay male 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Is there some case of a male receiving eggs from a woman and gestating?

If there was such case we'd all know, because there one million dollar prize set for such thing happening.

[–]MezozoicGaygay male 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

There are fishes that can change their sex on demand, there are full-female lesbian lizards, there are animals that reproduce in asexual way by just cutting part of themselves (sea stars). There are insects who reproduce only from one hive-queen, there are insects when male dies after finishing sex act, there are octopuses that are shooting "penis" into female from the distance, there are octopuses that can change any their "hand" into penis on demand.

However, what it all has to do with mammals (and especially humans), who have only two sexes and are reproducing same way among all species?

[–]SilverSlippers 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yup. Male seahorses get pregnant, well sort of. They obviously don't have a uterus. Instead they have this internal pouch thing. The female lays the eggs inside of the the male with an ovipositor (essentially an elongated vagina that looks like a penis). They stick the the ovipositor inside the male and then lay the eggs inside him. He fertilizes the eggs inside his body and they carries the embryos to term. Nature is weird.

This has nothing to do with humans though. Lots of animals have sexes and reproduction systems the are completely alien to humans. Bearded dragons and many other reptiles have their sex determined by the temperature that their egg was incubated at. Many species of fish undergo full sex changes (like the actually become fully functioning members of the opposite sex, capable a producing gametes). Most slugs are true hermaphrodites. There are all-female lesbian clone lizards (They are all female and reproduce by cloning themselves, they have sex with each other anyway because why not). Nature is weird. However none of these animals are human.

What matters to how our society works is the way sex and reproduction work in humans, not lizards or seahorses or clownfish. It is interesting to learn about alternate systems just for the wonder of how much variation there is in life.

[–]grixitperson 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Incubation is not pregnancy.

[–]worried19 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Seahorses are cool and a great example of nature's diversity, but they have nothing to do with human reproduction.

Just for fun, slug sex is also really interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG9qpZ89qzc

[–]divingrightintowork 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There are still female seahorses, whose bodies are built around the production and support of large gamates, and male seahorses whose bodies are built around the production and support of small gamates....

...does this sound familiar yet?