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"The fact that there is no current consensus of biological sex is not antithetical to science... However, the field urgently needs an ethical and reproducible approach for discussing sex" There is No Consensus on Biological Sex

buff.lyThere is No Consensus on Biological SexAt this critical moment when misinformation about sex is being applied to policy globally, scientific clarification on the definition of biological sex is valuable. Here, we evaluate the primary…

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Categories are human inventions that are often useful in systemizing nature. Nature, however, is under no obligation to respect them, and often does not. Misunderstanding this is "antithetical to science." There is no blueprint for the "correct hummingbird" male or female. It is whatever results...

...from a developmental process starting with a single cell in a particular environment. It may be well adapted or not. It may or may not be capable of reproduction. It is most likely to be something we'd call either a "normal" male or female hummingbird. But if it varies, that's failure of our ...

Another reason I don't love the gametic sex definition in my systems is that we sometimes have multiple male phenotypes that all produce small gametes (e.g. major and minor males in dung beetles).