Dr Clair Bennison from the University's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, said: «We know that in the zebra finch, long sperm swim faster than short sperm, so we might expect longer,
faster swimming sperm to simply reach the egg first.
Not exact matches
There is evidence that those
fast swimming male
sperm take a hit when they get hot.
For example, according to the Shettles method, having sex as close to the moment of ovulation as possible is supposed to skew the ratio towards boys: the Y chromosome is smaller, so the reasoning is that Y - carrying
sperm swim faster and are first to reach the egg.
Sperm mixed with rival ejaculates were also more than 20 %
faster and
swam in straighter lines compared to controls.
Males try to fertilize more eggs by releasing more or
faster -
swimming sperm into the female, and / or by plugging her reproductive tract when they're through.
And while there are already sorting methods that select the
fastest -
swimming sperm, a new microfluidic device also ensures that they're the healthiest.
(Male
sperm, which carry a Y chromosome, have been shown to
swim faster but not live as long as their female X-chromosome counterparts.)
Under a microscope, male
sperm tend to
swim faster but also die sooner while female
sperm do the opposite (
swim slower but live longer).