Mallory
Posted : 9/27/2006 2:46:59 PM
Alllllllll the time.
Hermaphrotidism can just be a genetic mutation, but it can also be the result of other things such as chemical exposure (this is well documented in frogs and studied in detail by Berkeley professor Tyrone Hayes's laboratory). It's seen in all sorts of vertebrates.
Heck, I'll even go out on a limb and talk about the unisexuals -- the females that don't need males to reproduce. Not quite gender bending (none of them turn to males, though there are situations in fish where that can happen), but the lizards I work with reproduce asexually and don't ever mate with males.
Nature is a fabulous, ridiculous, and crazy thing!