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Oldest male fossil animal discovered
SCIENTISTS have identified the oldest male fossil animal yet discovered. It is an ocean-dwelling creature from 425-million-year-old rocks in the UK.
Unusually, its soft parts are well preserved as well as its hard shell. It has limbs for swimming and feeding.
It also has what scientists say is the oldest penis seen in the fossil record.
Researchers are puzzled as to why the ancient creature appears so similar to its modern relatives. Their research is to be found in the journal Science.
The fossil record is packed with shells thought to be from a group of arthropods called ostracodes. They are so numerous and varied that geologists use them to date rock layers.
Their soft tissues are rarely seen but David Siveter, of the University of Leicester, and colleagues found an ancient ostracode that had been buried in volcanic ash during the Silurian Period.
The creature quickly mineralised and had its most delicate tissues preserved.
The find, made in the county of Herefordshire, pushes back the earliest evidence for the soft-tissue anatomy of this important group of animals by nearly 200 million years.
The researchers cracked open the rock that entombed the creature and used a shave-and-photograph technique that yielded a virtual fossil with carefully preserved three-dimensional details.
“The whole animal is amazing,” said Professor Siveter. “We have got something we could only dream about.”
The ostracode’s appendages suggest that it swam and scavenged for food along the ocean floor. It was also definitely male as it has the oldest known example of a penis.
The scientists say that the five-millimetre-long fossil is remarkably similar to some modern ostracodes, suggesting an extremely low rate of evolutionary change over the last 425 million years.
“This is a demonstration of unbelievable stability,” said Dr Tom Cronin, of the US Geological Survey.
As the discoverer of a new species, David Siveter and his co-researchers provided the name for the ostracode. They have called it Colymbosathon ecplecticos, which means “amazing swimmer with a large penis.” — Dawn ScienceDotcom Report
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