Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Fish Sex


Artist's depiction of Placoderms mating in what once was a giant lake in southern Australia. The fossilized remains of two pregnant fish shows that the mating practices of modern day sharks and rays go back hundreds of millions of years, researchers said on 2/25/09. The scientist from Australia and Britain said the presence of embryos in the armored placoderm fish called Incisoscutum richiei offers proof that internal fertilization, in which babies are born alive, took place as much as 30 million years earlier than previously thought (AP/Peter Trusler).

While the Buddha talked about the de-evolution of humans (Aganna Sutra), from subtle beings to dense terrestrial bodies, the co-existence of animals on the planet is not given much recorded attention. Science is able to shed light slowly through theories and examination of a growing fossil record.
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BANGKOK, Thailand – The fossilized remains of two pregnant fish indicate that sex as we know it — fertilization of eggs inside a female — took place as much as 30 million years earlier than previously thought, researchers said Thursday.

Scientists from Australia and Britain studying 380 million-year-old fossils of the armored placoderm fish, or Incisoscutum richiei, said they were initially confused when they realized that the two fish were carrying embryos. They originally thought the fish laid their eggs before fertilization. More>>

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