[Space/Aliens] Reproductive Features: alien, exotic and weird ideas

[talonthehand]

The science fiction webcomic Schlock Mercenary has a species with three races (male, female and muftale), where the males and females provide genetic material in sperm and ovum like with most mammals, and the muftale raises the newborn in a marsupial-like pouch for a year or so. Let me see if I can find a link...ah, here we are. It looks like a number of the newborns traits are determined by what hormones they're exposed to while they're in their first year, so the muftale, while not contributing DNA, still contributes to how the child turns out.

[capnq]

Originally Posted by starslayer

Don't nessassarily get hung up on 'male/female'.

Some microbacteria 'trade' genetic information between each other. If a species were to become intelligent but retain that early genetic ability they might have conscious control of this ability when breeding; [..]
Such a species would react to change very well as they can select the most efficent breeding traits in one generation to react to lean, and the most powerful but expensive ones in times of plenty. Depending on how strong there sense of individual rights are they might also purposely breed for tasks selecting traits suited for those tasks (Soldiers have higher 3d spatial senses, reflexes, and overall resilience) or could lead to more accountability for parenting (Why did you EVER think it was a good idea to instill your poor reflexes into your child!?!)

Originally Posted by talonthehand

The science fiction webcomic Schlock Mercenary has a species with three races (male, female and muftale), where the males and females provide genetic material in sperm and ovum like with most mammals, and the muftale raises the newborn in a marsupial-like pouch for a year or so.

Schlock's own species reproduces by a method similar to what starslayer describes above, and is even capable of including other species' genetic traits. (Schlock's desire to produce children with Admiral Breya was a long-running subplot.) I think the process was explained somewhere in the "Quest for Second Sight" subarc of The Teraport Wars, but I can't find the individual strip(s).

Warhammer 40,000's Genestealers use an extreme form of parisitism.

I recall a couple more that I've read in SF short stories, but can't recall titles or authors.

One story had three sexes, male, female, and guardian. The guardians were sterile, but physically superior, and obsessively, ruthlessly protective of their bonded pairs' offspring.

Another story had a sapient species whose offspring were parasitic. The birth process was lethal to the host, but the species' culture required that the host give informed consent before the egg was implanted.

[Trachmyr]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Greetings, all!

• Parthenogenesis + use of some external event to create genetic diversity. Perhaps the Asari of Mass Effect are the most known example.

I'll share what I use in my current campaign for the Selk race.

They use Parthenogenesis, but they must use bio-feedback (Read: Meditate on the desire to become pregnant) to begin ovulation. The Selk are effectively clones, all sharing the exact same DNA. But they express individuality by differing Dominancy/Recessiveness of genes.

The ovum is has a full set of chromosomes (26 +51 short synthetic chromosomes), but each pair is "inactive". Chemicals produced in the uterus can activate the individual pair, there is one such chemical per pair (like a set of keys). Depending on the mother's own Dominancy expression of her genes, the chemicals carry either a positive or negative charge, the charge of the Key Chemical that activates a pair, one of the genes will gain dominancy. Note that the Key chemicals produced don't always have the charge that corresponds to the mother's dominant gene, about 1:80 carries the opposite charge.

The ovum must have all gene sequences activated in order to "become fertilized", and if after about 11 days the ovum isn't fully activated, it aborts and the Selk menstruates.

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The Key Chemicals are produced in response to a physical trigger, that being orgasm. Thus sexual activity is required to fertilize the ovum (though a partner isn't actually required). Each time the Selk experiences that "Trigger", it releases those key chemical. However, the levels of chemicals produced are fairly low, requiring many "triggers" before fertilization usually occurs... however a sexual partner greatly increases rate of conception.

Key chemicals aren't just produced in the uterus, they are also produced in vaginal secretion and lactate, and they are produced in much higher concentrations. If these secretions come in contact with the mother's mucus membranes, the key chemicals will be absorbed into the blood stream, eventually to be deposited into the mother's Uterus (Key chemicals can also remain in the blood for up to three days). As expected, the key chemicals produced by other Selk will have charges that correspond to the Donor's gene dominances.

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While this does not create Genetic diversity, it creates individual diversity [/I](2.4 Septillion Variations)[/I]. The Selk are a bio-engineered race, and their designer did not want the randomness of evolution to "plague" the species. In the designer's opinion, if evolution or diversity is needed, it can be done through genetic manipulation, the same as how the Selk were created to begin with.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Greetings, all!
[list][*]Three sexes, as in the Player of Games by Iain M. Banks: the male, female, and the 'apex', whose function is basically the transit of spermatozoa. But that seems like a not-too-useful build from an evolutionary perspective.

It adds complexity, for no obvious payoff. But special case circumstances might just work. For ex, if the 'third sex' was actually an entirely different species, it might exist in symbiosis with the first species, perhaps carrying the offspring of the other species in exchange for protection, or food.

Another possibility, a plant form that acts as a sessile 'uterus' or 'pouch' for the development of animal life forms, in exchange for being 'protected' or spread by the animals.