On Mon, 26 Jan 2004, Damien Sullivan wrote: > I think sperm in general are parasite gametes in the sexual process; > some thought is that the original sexual gametes would have been 'fair', > or equal in size, but it makes sense for one half to cheat and make lots > of smaller gametes and off the race goes. The same logic should > probably apply to actual males, except when offset by > competition-for-mating issues, which turns out to be pretty often. The argument in Matt Ridley's _The Red Queen_ has it that sperm are small because of selfish gene effects between the X and Y chromosome and the female mitochondria genes fighting for dominance or something - and maybe something having to do with parasitism. Maybe time for a reread.