The question was: "Across species, what makes females "female" and males "male"?
a) that males have testes and females don't?
Wrong. For example, Spotted Hyena females all have "penises" and a scrotum.
b) that females lactate and males don't?
Wrong. Male Indonesian Fruit Bats lactate milk.
c) that males possess the "xy" chromosome and females the "xx"?
Wrong. Chickens don't even have XY chromosomes.
d) that males have small gametes and females have large gametes?
Correct! Congratulations, Smarty Pants!
e) that females prefer monogamy more than males?
A whopping 30% of our quiz-takers picked the correct answer. As promised, Susie and Aretha are sending as many copies of Bitten out the door as they can hustle.
The most popular answer, albeit wrong, was that old "chromosome" canard. That was followed by a couple dozen entries that fell for the testes gambit, and only one curiosity seeker who chose "lactation"- guess everyone knew about the fruit bats. One solitary writer insisted that (e) was true, despite our mad hints.
One last shocker: the correct answers came from a disproportionately high number of Canadian and UK Jezebel readers. Read it and weep, Yankees!
Hey, but even the education-starved Americans are getting consolation prizes- because no gamete goes home empty-handed here at the Jezebel Sex and Science Circus! Thank you all for playing...