What is then the meaning of all this diversity? Detailed evolutionary analyses indicate that some of these reproductive lifestyles, such as the ability to self-reproduce, have evolved repeatedly and frequently throughout fungi from the same building block, the mating locus. And variation in reproductive systems among closely related species is quite common, suggesting that these transitions can take place – on an evolutionary timescale – relatively quickly and easily.
While the diversity of animal reproductive systems pales in comparison, multiple sexes have also been discovered in some ants and several different animals have also evolved the capacity to switch sex, such as certain fish species. Viewed from the lens of life’s diversity, we should not be surprised that we humans are variable too.
