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The sperm was found within an individual from the ostracod group, a crustacean that has existed for about 500 million years and is present in the world’s oceans, according to the report. Proceedings of the Royal Society.
They were discovered inside the body of a female, suggesting that the animal must have been fertilized before being encased in amber, experts say.
Even more interesting, the sperm count was “gigantic,” 4.6 times the size of a woman’s body.
“This is equivalent to about 7.3 meters inside a person 1.7 meters tall, so it takes a lot of energy to produce them,” AFP quoted Dr. Renate Matzke-Karasz from Ludwig Maximilian University. from Munich (Germany), co-author of the report.
The newly found ostracod also represents a new crustacean, and is called “Myanmarcypris hui”.
During the Cretaceous Period, from about 145 to 66 million years ago, the ostracod species above likely lived off the current coast of Myanmar, before being hit by the resin and turning amber.
Most males of all species in the world (including humans) produce tens of millions of tiny sperm, but for the ostracod group, quality is more important than quantity, leading experts to question. ask about the evolutionary value of these giant sperm.
Previously, the oldest animal sperm fossil specimen was found at 17 million years old, according to the group of Dr. Wang He from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Nanjing, China.
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