I just spotted this paper, which is a little confusing but seems to be arguing that sex can be easily worthwhile when individuals can switch what sex they are in response to their environment. That seems basically equivalent to hermaphroditism, so in some sense it’s just a restatement of the question I posed above, with more math.
It’s not. It’s really-really not. Having a switching ovo-testis is, while not cheap, far cheaper than a set of parallel organs which commit literally contradictory effects on your body simultaneously. Like, if we take humans, gestagen is used for chemical castration for a reason.
I just spotted this paper, which is a little confusing but seems to be arguing that sex can be easily worthwhile when individuals can switch what sex they are in response to their environment. That seems basically equivalent to hermaphroditism, so in some sense it’s just a restatement of the question I posed above, with more math.
It’s not. It’s really-really not. Having a switching ovo-testis is, while not cheap, far cheaper than a set of parallel organs which commit literally contradictory effects on your body simultaneously. Like, if we take humans, gestagen is used for chemical castration for a reason.