A reconstruction of a female ostracod’s reproductive organ filled with sperm R. Matzke-Karasz
Dozens of perfectly preserved sperm coiled up inside the reproductive tract of a 100-million-year-old female microcrustacean have been identified as the oldest animal sperm ever found.
This tiny crustacean (Myanmarcypris hui) had a sexual encounter just before getting trapped in resin that had flowed from a nearby tree which later turned to amber, says Renate Matzke-Karasz at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany.
The roughly 50 intact sperm cells nestled inside the organs of this newly discovered species of ostracod – small crustaceans known as “seed shrimp”…
