World's Most 'Giant' and 'Oldest' Fossilized Sperm Discovered

In northwestern Queensland, Australia, paleontologists have found the world's enormous fossilized animal sperm that is at least 16-17 million years old at the Riversleigh's Bitesantennary Site.

Renate Matzke-Karasz, paleontologist at the Ludwig-Maximiliian University and Geo-Bio Center said that the animal that this 'giant' sperm belongs to is from the class of Ostracoda, or mussel shrimp and their species have been on Earth for at least 500 million years, Discovery News reported.

The sperm had been phosphatized, meaning, that the original organic material was replaced after embedding and before decaying by phosphatic minerals that are responsible for its extremely fine preservation, she added.

The less than an inch in length sperm of male mussel shrimp has industrial strength which makes it enormous with respect to the size of its male producer.

Source: ANI