World's Oldest Giant Sperm Discovered
http://www.latinopost.com/articles/5830/20140515/worlds-oldest-giant-sperm-discovered.htm
A 17 million-year-old sperm has been discovered in Australia and according to researchers, it is one of the largest sperms ever.
The ancient sperm was discovered fossilized at Riversleigh World Heritage Fossil Site in northern Queensland, notes Washington Post. Paleontologists began working on the site in 1988 and discovered various bat fossils.
However, a new study published by researchers from the University of New South Wales reveals that there is more to the fossil cave in Australia than just bat-related discoveries.
Dubbed as the world's oldest and largest sperm in proportion to body size, the sperm cells reportedly belong to an ostracod, says Washington Post. Los Angeles Times reports that the organism is actually a shrimp and is one of "the creatures with the largest sperm in the animal kingdom."
The crustacean's sperm is not the only thing that has been perfectly preserved and chanced upon by researchers. The female shrimp, including its reproductive tract where the sperm was found, is also allegedly still intact. Researchers believe that bat poop might have played some part in the preservation.
"The sperm was clearly wound up in knots within this weird 'zenker' organ, balled up like a ball of string, then literally shot at and into a female and the female catches it. It's like they were playing catch," Washington Post quotes paleontologist Michael Archer, onetime director of the Australian Museum.
Los Angeles Times says that the newly discovered giant sperm is not really humungous in terms of size but is considered gigantic in proportion to the ostracod's roughly 1 millimeter long body.
"The sperm in the ancient shrimp found by Aussie researchers were 1.3 millimeters long. For the sake of comparison, the head of a human sperm has a width of 3.5 microns, or 0.0035 millimeters," reports Los Angeles Times.
According to the outlet, the title for the longest sperm cell is held by the Drosophila bifurca, a fruit fly which reportedly has sperm measuring a staggering 5.8 centimeters long.