Sexual and Asexual Reproduction Quiz Can you figure them out? Sexual and Asexual Reproduction Quiz

Red Kangaroo (Macropus rufus) Red kangaroos can leap as far as 8 metres in one jump. When it is mating time, the males box each other with their powerful jumping legs. The winning male deposits his sperm in the female, where an egg is fertilised. After only 34 days, the undeveloped young is born. Safely tucked away in the mum’s pouch, it will continue to grow and finally leave the pouch after eight months. 

Salmonella (Salmonella Typhimurium) Salmonella is a bacterium that causes food poisoning. In the small intestine, a single Salmonella cell divides into two, and can rapidly produce many copies of itself. The microscopic bacteria invade our cells. We experience fever, nausea, and diarrhoea as our immune system responds and fights it.

Sunflower (Helianthus spp.) Like other flowering plants, the sunflower relies on insects for reproduction. It lures bees with a sweet pollen mixture, and the bees pick it up and spread it from flower to flower. When sperm-filled pollen grains contact the stigma, they grow a pollen tube that reaches into the ovary. The sperm travel down the tube to fertilise an egg. The head of a single sunflower bloom contains hundreds of tiny flowers that each produce a seed.

Big-belly Seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis) Unlike other species of seahorses, the big-belly seahorses do not mate for life. The males are the ones who initiate courtship and the ones who get pregnant! A female produces and deposits her eggs in the male's pouch and the male then carries the eggs for about 30 days until they hatch. Muscle contractions help the male give birth, with the number of baby seahorses depending on the size of his pouch. 

Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) The strawberry plant grows stolons(modified stems), called runners. Tiny new strawberry plants take root from runners. Each new plant is a clone to the parent plant. Insect pollinators also visit strawberry flowers. Pollen from one flower joins the eggs of another to form seeds. 

Amoeba (Amoeba spp.) An amoeba, like other unicellular organisms, reproduces by creating a copy of the DNA within the nucleus and then dividing the cell into two identical daughter cells, thus creating clones of itself. This cell division process is known as mitosis.

Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) During the mating season, the male komodo dragons will fight each other over females and territory, grappling with one another on their hind legs. Females often resist mating by using their claws and teeth and the winning males must fully subdue the females in order to mate. Female komodo dragons also have the ability to produce eggs via the process of parthenogenesis, which does not involve a male.

Octopus (Octopus spp.) When octopuses reproduce, the male uses a specialised arm called a hectocotylus to insert his sperm directly into the female’s body. Males will usually die a few months after the mating process. The females can keep sperm alive inside themselves for up to four weeks and after her eggs are fertilised, she will lay about 200,000 to 400,000 eggs.

Hydra (Hydra spp.) Hydra are small, simple, freshwater animals that are predatory. When food is plentiful, hydra produce buds in their body wall and these buds break away when they are fully mature adults. When conditions are harsh, hydra produce swellings in their body wall that develop into testes or ovaries. Many hydra species are hermaphrodites that can produce both sex cells.

Baker’s Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) Baker's yeast is a tiny, single-celled fungus that makes bread dough rise by producing carbon dioxide and converting sugars into alcohol. This yeast reproduces by budding. As the small bud grows, it receives a copy of the parent's nucleus. When the bud pinches off, the new cell is smaller than the parent cell but genetically identical. During environmentally stressful conditions, the yeast might undergo sporulation, where spores released from two yeast fuse together.