Fossils: World’s oldest sperm are discovered inside a female crustacean from 100 million years ago

World’s oldest sperm is discovered inside a female crustacean that mated and was then trapped in amber 100 million years ago

Scientists have discovered what they believe to be the oldest fossilised animal sperm from around 100 million years ago.

The ‘spectacular find’ was unearthed by an international team of palaeontologists preserved inside a female ostracod – a type of tiny crustacean that resembles a mussel.

Researchers believe the female mated shortly before becoming trapped in the resin.

They say the findings provide ‘an extremely rare opportunity’ to learn more about the evolution of the reproduction process in animals.

Until now, the oldest known fossilised animal sperm was thought to have been found in a 50-million-year-old worm cocoon from Antarctica.

The researchers say the ostracod specimen belongs to a new species, dubbed Myanmarcypris hui.

They believe these creatures lived on the coast as well as inland waters of what is now Myanmar, surrounded by trees that produced huge quantities of resin.

Scientists have discovered what they believe to be the oldest fossilised animal sperm from around 100 million years ago

In their study, geobiologist Renate Matzke-Karasz of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich and colleagues analysed 39 specimens of ostracods that had been trapped in a tiny piece of amber — using X-ray scans to reconstruct them in 3D.

The researchers identified ripe giant sperm stored in a pair of sperm receptacles inside the female ostracod — kept waiting ready for her eggs to mature, in what could also be the earliest direct evidence of a completed insemination.

While the majority of the male members of animal species — humans included — produce large quantities of very small sperm as to increase the chance of fertilisation, there are exceptions.

Some creatures — such as fruit flies and modern-day ostracods — produce a small number of oversized sperm, each of which sport tails several times longer than the actual animal itself.

In these cases, chances of fertilising an ovum can increase with the size of the sperm cell, the researchers explained.

Knowing more about how giant sperm cells evolved could shed light on what the researchers describe as an ‘ancient and advanced instance of evolutionary specialisation’.

They say the findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, provide “an extremely rare opportunity” to learn more about the evolution of the reproduction process

They say the findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, provide ‘an extremely rare opportunity’ to learn more about the evolution of the reproduction process

The researchers say the ostracod specimen belongs to a new species, dubbed Myanmarcypris hui. They believe these creatures lived on the coast as well as inland waters of what is now Myanmar, surrounded by trees that produced huge quantities of resin

The researchers say the ostracod specimen belongs to a new species, dubbed Myanmarcypris hui. They believe these creatures lived on the coast as well as inland waters of what is now Myanmar, surrounded by trees that produced huge quantities of resin

‘The most significant part of our story is that we can now show that using giant sperm for reproduction is something that can last long in Earth history,’ Dr Matzke-Karasz told the PA news agency.

‘Previously, we were not sure if animals that ‘switched’ to using these giant sperm at a certain point in their evolutionary history [were] doomed to become extinct very quickly,’ she explained.

‘After all, these are enormous costs for the animals — large sperm must be produced, the reproductive organs are much bigger than in other species, they take up a lot of space in the animal and mating lasts long.’

‘This is a lot of biological energy that must be allocated to reproduction — so you might think that this doesn’t make sense from an evolutionary standpoint.’

‘But in ostracods, it seemed to work for more than 100 million years,’ she added.

‘From an evolutionary point of view, sexual reproduction with the aid of giant sperm must, therefore, be a thoroughly profitable strategy.’

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.