Question

How do animals reproduce sexually?

Answer 1

Reproduction is defined as the important biological process by which new individuals or offspring are produced from parents and is also known to be a fundamental feature of life. Reproduction is majorly of two types- sexual and asexual.

Complete answer:
Sexual reproduction takes place by two special kinds of cells—the male gamete known as the sperm and the female gamete known as the egg or ovum. Sexual reproduction in animals is the combination of the sperm provided from the male and the egg provided by the female through a process known as fertilization. This fertilization process can occur in different ways in different animals.

Some animals release the sperms and the eggs in the environment which fuse together to form the embryo, in some animals the females retain the egg within themselves and receive the sperm into the female body and finally the developing embryo covered within a shell is expelled into the outside environment and in some animals like the previous group the females retain the egg within themselves and receive the sperm inside them but they retain the developing embryo throughout the gestation period, delivery occurs only when the baby is mature.

Note: Sexual reproduction has been found to be advantageous over asexual reproduction because in the former more genetic variation takes place because some genes are obtained from mother and some from father , it also plays an important role in the origin of new species which is a key step in evolution.