SciShow Tangents

Gay Animals with Field Guide to Gay Animals

Episode Summary

It wouldn't be Pride at Tangents if we weren't getting into some science! We're joined by Owen Ever and Laine Kaplan-Levenson, the hosts of a new show from news outlet Canadaland called "Field Guide to Gay Animals." Our conversation ranged far and wide across a myriad of ways queerness is expressed in the animal world and the challenges and joys of studying it.

Episode Notes

It wouldn't be Pride at Tangents if we weren't getting into some science! We're joined by Owen Ever and Laine Kaplan-Levenson, the hosts of a new show from news outlet Canadaland called "Field Guide to Gay Animals." Our conversation ranged far and wide across a myriad of ways queerness is expressed in the animal world and the challenges and joys of studying it. 

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Sources:

[Truth or Fail Express]

Sequentially hermaphroditic shrimp

https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/eeblog/2020/12/01/sequential-hermaphroditism-or-why-to-be-wary-of-frog-dna/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/oceans-rising-acidity-could-impact-shrimps-early-sex-reversal-180972521/

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218238

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355179232_Protandric_Transcriptomes_to_Uncover_Parts_of_the_Crustacean_Sex-Differentiation_Puzzle

Nudibranch with male and female sex organs

https://www.livescience.com/27065-sea-slug-uses-disposable-penis.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3639767/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10164-018-0562-z?wt

Sparrows with white or tan stripes and functionally four genders

https://www.audubon.org/news/the-fascinating-and-complicated-sex-lives-white-throated-sparrows

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7725849/

[This or That: Bird or Bug?]

Male-male duo that dances together to attract a mate (blue-backed manakin)

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/51171525#page/225/mode/1up

https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/18/1/21/209396

Male-male pair that takes over a male-female pair’s nest (Japanese termites)

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/680968

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347216301233

Mating-related injuries on both male and female specimens (dragonflies)

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16252041#page/48/mode/1up

[Ask the Science Couch]

History of sexual diversity in animals documented or not in zoology (e.g. Adelie penguins)

https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/195/1/1/6568055

https://www.penguinscience.com/reprints/10%20Russell.pdf

http://www.italian-journal-of-mammalogy.it/pdf-77304-13455?filename=Same_sex%20sexual%20behaviour.pdf

[Butt One More Thing]

Aristotle’s History of Animals mentions female pigeons laying wind-eggs after same-sex sexual behavior

https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/history_anim.6.vi.html

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/found-an-egg-with-no-yolk