sperm competition

A Dictionary of Zoology | Date: 1999

sperm competition The competition to fertilize an ovum that occurs among sperm from different males when the female has mated with more than one partner. It is believed that certain sperms, different in appearance to ordinary sperms and incapable of fertilizing the ovum, but present in large numbers, are involved in repelling or disabling sperms from the rival male.


© A Dictionary of Zoology 1999, originally published by Oxford University Press 1999.

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