Final answer:
Gametes are formed through the process of meiosis. This is the cell division method that results in haploid cells essential for sexual reproduction, allowing for genetic variation in offspring.
Step-by-step explanation:
Gametes are formed through the process of meiosis. Meiosis is a type of cell division that reduces the chromosome number by half, resulting in the production of haploid cells from a diploid cell. These haploid cells are essential for sexual reproduction because they ensure that when two gametes, such as a sperm and an egg, fuse during fertilization, the resulting zygote has the correct number of chromosomes.
In contrast, asexual reproduction methods like budding and fission do not produce gametes but rather create clones of the original organism. Additionally, mitosis is involved in the growth and maintenance of organisms and is not responsible for producing gametes.For animals with little mobility that reproduce sexually, such as hermaphrodites, they are capable of producing gametes internally without the need for significant movement to find a mate. Sexual reproduction, involving both meiosis and fertilization, introduces genetic variation into offspring, which may account for the evolutionary success of this method of reproduction.