Biology 1st Edition by Jerome Krueger, Kendra Hill, Robert Noyd

Exercise 4

The green sea turtle mates every couple of years. Once she starts to lay eggs, she does not mate again until the next season. She stores the sperm in her oviducts for up to four years until she is ready to lay her eggs. During the nesting season, every 13 days she drags her 300- to 400-pound body out of the water to lay 100 to 200 eggs per nest. Genetic studies show that sometimes the entire nest is fathered by one individual and sometimes the nest has multiple fathers. What might be a reproductive advantage of storing sperm? What might be a disadvantage?