Fact of the day: All clownfish are born male.

All clownfish are born male.

There’s a good reason why both main characters in Finding Nemo are male, at least initially. All clownfish are born that way, and it’s only when a group’s dominant female dies or disappears that a male will develop into a female and become the new matriarch. All clownfish have the ability to turn female, and the change is permanent once it occurs. The transformation begins almost immediately after the dominant female leaves, and starts in the brain before manifesting itself in the sex organs. Had the beloved Pixar film been devoted to scientific accuracy, Nemo’s father, Marlin, might not have been just his sole caregiver after tragedy befalls the boy’s mother — he might literally have become his mother.