A class of prehistoric fish, which has been extinct since the end of the Devonian Period more than 380 million years ago, has recently grabbed the attention of scientists, who haveВ called the animalВ a sexual trailblazer.В
Placoderms — armor-plated fish — were once considered noteworthy because they were among the first creatures on Earth with a jaw. Now they’re recognized for another first: scientists are saying placoderms in Western Australia were the first creatures that wereВ fertilized within their mothers. “It was (previously) thought that such ancient fish would show a moreprimitive type of reproduction, with sperm and eggs combining externally in the water, as still happens with many modern fish.”В
In 2005, an expedition led by John Long of Museum Victoria to the Gogo Formation of Western Australia resulted in the discovery of fossilized remains of “a partially ossified skeletonВ of a juvenile (placoderm) and the mineralised umbilical cord” within the tail section of a female. The discovery proved the ancient fish fertilized its young internally.
ThinkingВ sex news is great, but why should we mammals give a damn?В “It shifts how we think about how reproduction evolved.В You’re a jawed vertebrate and I’m a jawed vertebrate, so this is our own history,” Zerina Johanson, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London, told Reuters.В
In other sex news, theВ oldest penis in the worldВ was recently found in the UK, and it doesn’t belong to David Attenborough…
Victoria,
Lighten up a bit, ok? Unload the burden for a day, and do something you love. Drink peppermint tea; eat a piece of ezekiel bread toast with blackberry jam and butter; make a snow angel; listen to good music; and go to a tanning bed for sunshine. Better yet, charge an airline ticket to Florida keys and lay on the beach for a few days…..it is worth the money. When you get home you can sell something on ebay to pay for the trip.
Other than that, I think our brains will start shrinking because of all the drivel on the internet. The warnings have been out about loss of attention span for about a week now. If we evolve in reverse, we will be like those Hula commercials say, mushy brained and alien. Wonder why they think it is a good selling point?
Patty, magic is out of my realm today. I am stuck somewhere between karma and the physical vehicle transporting me. The vehicle is warming up its engine for blast off. I can’t get to the fuel in the tank.
Could we agree that things move? Or that things appear to move? Is that good enough?
aw come on. I think we are products of a vivid imagination, and one of these days we will go POOF, like the snowflakes we are.
mystes, tell that to the beagle bred by a german shepherd.
Victoria…
“And if our brains get any bigger, will we still be able to deliver babies?”
Brains just have to get deeper. They are already embedded throughout one’s neural organization (more Tantra for Bobos material), we just have to wake ’em up.
And babies can come through MUCH more easily once we allow ourselves to put pleasure back in the birthing suite.
Love ya,
M
I know it’s a stretch but water is indeed the source of all life. We humans did evolve from some fishlike creature. We give a damn because it’s fascinating. I give a damn because of the amount of nonverbal communication we are able to process and send and receive. This exists because of the long evolutionary process. And if our brains get any bigger, will we still be able to deliver babies?