Sequential hermaphroditism

Some animals can change their gender throughout their life! For example, let's talk about clownfish. When they are born, they are all born as males. As they grow and become bigger, the biggest clownfish in their group will change into a female!

The female clownfish will lay eggs, and the male clownfish will protect them until they hatch into baby clownfish. Then, the cycle starts all over again with the new baby clownfish all being born as male.

Other fish, like some types of wrasses, work the opposite way. They start out as females but later on switch to being males.

This process is called sequential hermaphroditism – sequential means happening one after the other, and hermaphroditism means having both male and female reproductive organs.

It’s important to remember that not all animals can change their gender like this. But for those that can, it’s like they get to be two different animals in one lifetime!