Skip to main content

Sex-Determination Systems

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

Sex-determination systems assign sex chromosomally: humans and most mammals use XY, some insects use XO, and birds and butterflies use ZW.

Show

Human XY males are the heterogametic sex, while ZW birds reverse this — females, not males, carry the two different sex chromosomes.

Watch for

Which chromosome type an organism inherits at fertilization is what Bio 1047's X-linked crosses assume, not derive.