Scientists scouring ancient rocks in Scotland have discovered fossils of the world's oldest genitals belonging to 400-million-year-old insects.
Jason Dunlop says the fossils of the ancient harvestmen insect, commonly known as a daddy-long-legs, show its penis was two-thirds the length of its body and remarkably similar to the modern-day species. Mr Dunlop says his team of researchers from Humbolt University in Berlin has also uncovered a long egg-laying organ called an ovipositor from a female. He says as well as the genitals, the fossils have the oldest known arachnid respiratory system, suggesting the insects' ancestors had long since crawled out of the sea and learned to breathe. The previous oldest penis, dating back 100-million years, had belonged to an ostracod, an early crustacean related to crabs, shrimps and water fleas.
"And what do you do for relaxation, doctor?"
"I collect fossilized genitalia." |
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