Sexual reproduction with only one sex?

[mhwombat]

Research projects with artificial life generally use creatures that are haploid. The offspring randomly inherit some genes from one parent, and some genes from the other parent.

Q1: Are there any biological species which reproduce similarly? I.e., they're haploid, but the offspring aren't clones. Perhaps hermaphroditic species like slugs or some plants?

In my own alife research, I'm using creatures that are diploid, but there is only one sex. From each parent, I apply random crossover between its two strands of genetic material, and then randomly select one to be the "gamete" from that parent. Then I combine the "gametes" to produce the offspring.

Q2: Are there any biological species which reproduce similarly? I.e., they're diploid, but they only have one sex?

The reason I'm doing it this way is that I'm trying to get the evolutionary advantages of sexual reproduction, but without halving the number of potential mates for each creature. Simulating an alife creature uses up a significant amount of CPU time, so I can only simulate a small population.

Thank you in advance for any help.

[JackBean]

the sexual reproduction is sexual, because you have something like sex between sexes and thus they can combine their DNA. How do you imagine sexual reproduction of one sex?

[mhwombat]

Sorry for the confusion. Please disregard my use of the phrase "sexual reproduction", I was using it as shorthand for reproducing by mixing genetic material from two parents.

What I am talking about is organisms that have two sets of DNA, one set from each parent, however there is only one sex, so any organism can mate with any other of that species.

[JackBean]

so you have sex (meaning process, when are "egg" and "egg" put together and DNA mixed).

Maybe you're looking for hermaphrodites? (like the gastropoda). If you wanted to have two equal sex cells, there is nothing like that on the Earth, to my knowledge.

[mhwombat]

To give an example, earthworms have both "male" and "female" reproductive organs, but there aren't "male" and "female" earthworms, there's just the one sex: hermaphrodite. I assume that since they have two different sex organisms, that the gamete from the male reproductive organ has a different form than the gamete from the female reproductive organ.

What I'm wondering is if there are organisms that have only one type of reproductive organ, and produce only one type of gamete, but the gametes join to produce offspring which inherit from both parents. Does that exist, and if so, what would you call that type of reproduction?

[mhwombat]

Sorry, our posts crossed.

so you have sex (meaning process, when are "egg" and "egg" put together and DNA mixed).

Maybe you're looking for hermaphrodites? (like the gastropoda). If you wanted to have two equal sex cells, there is nothing like that on the Earth, to my knowledge.

Yes, that was exactly what I was asking. Thank you for the information. It seems like "isogamy" is the closest thing to what I am looking for.