1200 million years ago, organisms evolved the ability of sexual reproduction. After the combination of "parent cell" and "mother cell", the gene was recombined and the offspring were born after meiosis. The advantage of this is to increase the diversity of genes and make future generations produce gene mutations that are easier to adapt to the environment.
By 660 million years ago, animals had evolved in the earth's oceans, and sexual reproduction was further developed. 200 million years later, animals in the sea brought this way of reproduction to land. Except that few animals reproduce asexually, sexual reproduction has become the main way for animals to reproduce.
In nature, the mating duration of most animals is relatively short, which is beneficial to the survival of animals. For example, the mating duration of sheep and goats is usually only a few tens of seconds, and the behavior of breeding should be completed as soon as possible to avoid being attacked by predators.
If animals mate for too long, they will consume too much energy, and the possibility of being attacked by predators will be greatly improved during this period. Most of the animals that mate for a long time have no offspring, so most of the animals that survive and reproduce are quick-acting individuals.
But for animals at the top of the food chain, they don't have to worry about being hunted, so their mating duration tends to be longer. For example, the mating duration of wolves can reach half an hour; Although lions mate for only half a minute at a time, they can do it about 30 times a day and more than 200 times a week, so the total time is not short.
So, in nature, which animal has the longest mating duration?
If it comes to mammals on land, the wide-footed bag shrew is no exception. Scientists have found that this small animal that looks like a mouse is very special in breeding offspring. Male marsupials reach maturity after 10 months of development, and begin to breed offspring every summer.
Driven by testosterone, male wide-legged marsupials will continue to look for females to mate. From one female to another, the male can last as long as 14 hour. Scientists believe that the fierce competition of sperm cells has prompted male wide-legged marsupials to invest more energy in reproduction.
In two weeks, this crazy courtship behavior of male wide-footed bag shrews caused serious damage to their bodies. Hormones in the body rise sharply, destroying the immune system and causing them to die after mating. Scientists call this phenomenon "suicide reproduction".
If you want to talk about animals in the ocean, anglerfish (or? ? ? ? Fish) is undoubtedly the first. For a long time, all the anglerfish captured by scientists are female, and they have never seen male anglerfish, which puzzles scientists. After years of research, scientists finally understand the reason, which is related to the unique breeding mode of anglerfish.
Anglerfish live in the dark deep sea, where the sun cannot shine. In the deep sea, it is very difficult for male anglerfish to find a mate to mate. In order to survive and reproduce better, the male fish will look for the female fish through the sense of smell soon after birth, and the female fish is hundreds of times larger than the male fish.
When the male anglerfish find the female fish, they will inject an enzyme into the female fish to digest the skin. After a long period of action, the blood vessels of the two are connected. The female fish provides nutrients to the male fish through blood vessels, while the male fish provides sperm to the female fish at any time through blood vessels.
It can be said that anglerfish mate almost all their lives. Female anglerfish usually live for 30 years, during which they combine with more than one male. Scientists have found that a female anglerfish combines with up to 8 males.