Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan <a href="http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/master.html?http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/0304/0304_feature.html" target="_blank">http://www.naturalhistorymag.c om/master.html?http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/0304/0304_feature.html</a> >>there’s a great deal to like about Finding Nemo—both in its conservation message and in its wonderfully animated and entertaining story. But I can’t restrain myself from two ichthyological asides. The first is about the film’s anthropomorphic characterizations. In a crucial scene of the movie, Nemo’s mother and his unhatched siblings are eaten by a barracuda. Nemo is the lone larva to survive. Nemo’s father becomes an overprotective worrywart after the disaster, and both quite evidently miss Nemo’s mother very much. The trouble with all this understandable humanizing of the characters is that in nature, clownfishes are protandrous hermaphrodites. What that means is that they start life as males, but under certain circumstances become females. Typically an adult pair—a female and a male—and between two and four smaller fish live together in a single anemone. The dominant, largest fish is generally a female. She possesses functioning ovaries and degenerate testicular tissue. The next-largest fish has functioning testes as well as some latent ovarian cells. If the dominant female dies, her mate’s gonads cease to function as testes and the egg-producing cells become active. Simultaneously, the largest of the nonbreeding individuals becomes the functioning male. So, had Marlin, Nemo’s dad, just hung around for a while, he would have become a she and Nemo would have had his mom back. Then, with time, Nemo himself would have matured into a functional male, and . . . but perhaps that’s all a bit too dark for the story line.<< Don't ever say that Laughing Place isn't a wealth of knowledge.
Originally Posted By AladdinAZ But Nemo's real mom would still be dead, and Nemo's genetic Dad would still be his genetic Dad even though His Dad is now a Female. BUT since Nemo's dad started handing out with Dory and Dory is larger than Marlin, maybe that's what prevented the sex change for Marlin. Hey, maybe Mr. Ray could explain it all in a sequel!!!!!!!!
Originally Posted By tiggerdis_ But really, I can see a sequel. When Nemo's dad becomes his mom, Nemo has a breakdown and runs away to find himself...... think of the opportunities there! Dr Ruth, or Dr Phil as the psychologist??
