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Fri, 29th Aug 2008  Washington:When it comes to sex, the little sea squirt can teach males a thing or two about how to retain the upper hand in competing for females.
“The marine organisms regulate their reproductivity depending on the level of competition,” says Angela Crean of Queensland University School of Integrative Biology.
"When there are lots of competing males trying to fertilise the eggs of females, males produce larger, more competitive sperm that live for longer," says the lead researcher in a new study, Angela Crean.
"Similarly, when females detect that there are too many males competing for her eggs (too many sperms can kill the eggs of some organisms) the females 'play hard to get' producing smaller eggs that are harder for searching sperm to find," Crean said.
"These changes make sense if you're stuck to a rock like sea squirts are. If you can't run away from a highly competitive environment, you must therefore make your gametes more competitive in order to get a higher chance of successfully reproducing."  | 
