Homogametic sex

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Homogametic sex refers to the gender of a species in which both sex chromosomes are identical. For example, in humans, females, with two X sex chromosomes, would be referred to as the homogametic sex while males, with an X and a Y sex chromosome, would be referred to as the heterogametic sex. Conversely, in birds, males, have two Z sex chromosomes, and so are the homogametic sex while females, with one Z and one W chromosome, are the heterogametic sex.