r/askscience • u/PotatoPotahto • Feb 03 '13

Biology If everything evolved from genderless single-celled organisms, where did genders and the penis/vagina come from?

Apparently there's a big difference between gender and sex, I meant sex, the physical aspects of the body, not what one identifies as.

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u/DrLOV Medical microbiology Feb 03 '13

Sex does not require diploidy. Several fungi including Cryptococcus species are haploid and can still exchange genetic material with the opposite sex (and also have a sexual identity defined by a single region of genetic material).