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380m-year-old "bony, L-shaped male organ and female ‘cheese-grater’ genitals"
First act of sexual intercourse ‘was done sideways, square-dance style’
The first act of copulation has been traced back to ancient animals that were endowed with such cumbersome sexual organs they had to mate side by side.
Fossilised features of antiarch fish suggest that early intercourse was not the smoothest of affairs, with males faced with the task of steering their bony L-shaped organs between twin genital plates that adorned the females like tiny cheese graters.
The male’s organ was nearly as long as his body and fixed rigid, leading paleontologists to finally work out that the creature’s small, jointed arm-like appendages were probably of help in achieving the correct position.“Fundamentally, they could not have done it in the missionary position,” said John Long, professor of palaeontology at Flinders University in Adelaide. “The very first act of copulation was done sideways, square-dance style.”
...
The detailed studies led Long and his colleagues to solve another mystery that has puzzled specialists for more than a century. “We’ve often wondered, for over 100 years, what these tiny little jointed arms were used for in these very peculiar fish. Now we know that if your sexual organs are rigid and fixed to your whole body, then little arms are very useful for helping to link the male and female together,” Long said.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/19/first-sexual-intercourse-placorderms-fossils
The first act of copulation has been traced back to ancient animals that were endowed with such cumbersome sexual organs they had to mate side by side.
Fossilised features of antiarch fish suggest that early intercourse was not the smoothest of affairs, with males faced with the task of steering their bony L-shaped organs between twin genital plates that adorned the females like tiny cheese graters.
The male’s organ was nearly as long as his body and fixed rigid, leading paleontologists to finally work out that the creature’s small, jointed arm-like appendages were probably of help in achieving the correct position.“Fundamentally, they could not have done it in the missionary position,” said John Long, professor of palaeontology at Flinders University in Adelaide. “The very first act of copulation was done sideways, square-dance style.”
...
The detailed studies led Long and his colleagues to solve another mystery that has puzzled specialists for more than a century. “We’ve often wondered, for over 100 years, what these tiny little jointed arms were used for in these very peculiar fish. Now we know that if your sexual organs are rigid and fixed to your whole body, then little arms are very useful for helping to link the male and female together,” Long said.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/19/first-sexual-intercourse-placorderms-fossils
The species name is, almost inevitably, Microbrachius dicki.
8 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
They left the male's dignity in shreds. 
