Throughout biology I have learned that many different species are hermaphrodites, meaning that an organism has both sets of sex organs and can produce eggs and sperm. I have always wondered though is how they reproduce to produce offspring.
What I have recently learned is that hermaphrodites can fertilize their own eggs with their own sperm to produce offspring that is genetically identical to them so they don’t need a mate to do so. For example worms and snails to name a few are known to be hermaphroditical and that is the reason they look so similar to each other. Another way hermaphrodites can reproduce is by trading their sperm with the same species and then create offspring by using the new sperm to fertilize the eggs, just like sexual reproduction.
There is no major problem with hermaphrodites reproducing but if they weren’t able to switch sperm with the same species and only reproduce with themselves and make genetically identical offspring, if environmental changes were to occur they would not be able to survive because they wouldn’t be able to reproduce with other species.
sydneymalden134 
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