Eli5: Would any of the 250 million sperm I outraced into existence, have been, in any meaningful way different different than I turned out?

Question

We often hear the metaphor, “out of the millions of sperm, you won the race!” Or something along those lines. But since the sperm are caring copies of the same genetic material, wouldn’t any of them have turned out to be me?

(Excluding abiotic factors, of course)

In: Biology

Answer 1

Look at fraternal twins and the differences between them. Those are from two different sperm and two different eggs, suffice to say you would be a different person if a different sperm won the race.