Fossil found in Australia reveals the oldest sperm in the world
The latest major scientific discovery comes directly from the Queensland region of Australia. At Riversleigh Archaeological Park - a UNESCO World Heritage Site - scientists at the University of New South Wales found a 17 million-year-old fossil that contained sperm from an ancient shrimp species living in the country.
"These are the oldest fossilized sperm ever recorded in a geological discovery, " says Professor Mike Archer, who is responsible for the finding. The expert has been excavating the Riversleigh region for over 35 years. In the same place, other unusual fossils have already been discovered - such as a giant toothed platypus and a carnivorous kangaroo.
The sperm were found near the sex organs of an ostracode, which is a tiny crustacean arthropod, and impressed the researchers as being larger than the animal's body. The fossil in question was collected by the researchers in 1988 and passed on to other experts so that they could further analyze the material.
It is also interesting to note that researchers cannot say for sure how sperm has been kept for so long. However, they believe the cave bats that existed there may be responsible for preservation: "Small ostracodes survived in cave water pools that were continually enriched with bat droppings, " Archer comments.
Thus, scientists believe that flying mammal feces have contributed to tissue mineralization. They further comment that this is "totally unexpected" and imagine "what other kinds of extraordinary preservations are waiting to be discovered in these deposits."
