On Sun, 11 May 2003 15:33:00 +0000 (UTC), "Anon."
 wrote:



>But there are other ways of bringing gametes together (e.g. a lot of 
>fungi use fusion).  So why didn't these ways become dominant?
>
>Again, that assumes that the gamete itself has to be able to move, 
>rather than being moved by the parent.
>

You are quite right about the variety of ways to move the two gametes
together.  Besides sperm actually swimming "outdoors" to reach an egg
(the process used by many aquatic animals and algae and also by mosses
and ferns) you have a multicellular parental generation carrying the
sperm very close to the egg.  That is what terrestrial animals do with
courtship and mating behavior and internal fertilization and what seed
plants do with pollen.  Many flowering plants go even farther -- they
pay (or trick) animals to carry the pollen most of the way.  The
pollen grows a pollen tube to go the rest of the way and the actual
sperm cells (two of them for the double fertilization step) get an
easy ride!

So from the perspective of us terrestrial creatures, being moved by
the parent IS the dominant way!
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