I’m talking about humans specifically here. During school I was always shown animations that showed many sperm swimming to an egg, and then when the first sperm started entering the egg (don’t even know how they do that, do they eat through?), the other sperm just stopped trying and gave up. How do the other sperm know? Are they sentient? What’s stopping loads of sperm going into the same egg? What would happen if 100 sperm went into the egg at once?
In: Biology
They don’t know, they don’t give up.
When the first sperm enters the egg successfully, the egg creates a layer around itself which prevents additional sperm from entering. The sperm keep trying but they can’t get through that membrane.
The very rare (in humans) case where two or more sperm fertilize an egg at the same time, before the membrane can be created to prevent subsequent sperm getting through, usually results in the death of the egg.
Latest Answers