Final answer:
Autosomes are non-sex chromosomes and are the same in males and females, containing most of the genetic information. Sex chromosomes, on the other hand, differ between sexes; females typically have two X chromosomes, while males have one X and one Y chromosome, with the Y chromosome carrying far fewer genes.
Step-by-step explanation:
Autosomes are the chromosomes that contain genes for characteristics that are unrelated to sex. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, of which 22 pairs are autosomes. These are the same in both males and females and are numbered from 1 through 22, with chromosome 1 being the largest and chromosome 22 the smallest, though chromosome 21 is actually shorter than 22 due to historical naming conventions.
In contrast, sex chromosomes determine the biological sex of an individual. Human females typically have two X chromosomes, making a homologous pair, while males have one X and one Y chromosome, which are non-homologous. The Y chromosome is significantly smaller than the X and contains fewer genes. Certain traits are associated with these sex chromosomes; for instance, traits linked to genes on the X chromosome are referred to as sex-linked traits.
Overall, the key difference is that autosomes carry the vast majority of genetic information for a range of characteristics whereas sex chromosomes are involved primarily in determining sex and traits linked to that.