Researchers working in Burma have uncovered the fossilise remains of a 99 - million - year erstwhile male person daddy longlegswith its penis fully extended and tumid . It ’s possibly the oldest — and longest held — erection in the story of skill .
What a means to go . This daddy stiltbird , also known as a harvestman , died with its proverbial pants down . Its phallus was still extended to half its consistence duration . Unlike their spider and scorpion cousins who use modified legs to transpose sperm , daddy longlegs athletics penis . Apparently very farseeing penises .
When it died , this ancient creature was clearly in a state of stimulation , and possibly in the vicinity of a female . How it went from a potential join to palaeontological posterity is anyone ’s guess . Perhaps it fell into seep rosin amid all the intimate excitment . Alternately , the male pappa longlegs may have accidentally fallen into some tree rosin as it was going about its day-after-day business , and as it was struggling , its roue pressure rose , forcing its member to squeeze out by chance .
disregarding , the attractively preserved specimen is providing paleontologists with a remarkable opportunity to study this poorly interpret animate being — and its member .
“ This is the first disk of a male copulatory organ of this nature preserved in amber and is of special importance due to the old age of the depository , ” write the researchers in their study , whichnow appearsin the Science of Nature . “ The penis has a lithe , distally flattened truncus , a spatulate ticker - shaped glans and a short distal stylus , twisted at the tip . ”
In fact , the penis is so alone that the specimen has been slotted into its own mob of arachnids and now bears the name Halitherses grimaldii . These animals have been around for more than 400 million years , and they ’re notoriously unmanageable to differentiate . But this picky fauna ’s member — its characteristic heart - shape head and twirled tip — show it ’s unlike than any other species .
Embarassing for the harvestman , cool for science .
[ National Geographic ]
Top paradigm : Jason Dunlop , Paul Selden & Gonzalo Giribet
Amber - BiologyPaleontologyScience
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