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Title: Turtles fossilised in sex embrace
Source:
BBC
URL Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18495102
Published: Jun 20, 2012
Author: Jonathan Amos
Post Date: 2012-06-20 12:38:25 by farmfriend
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Keywords: None
Views: 217
Comments: 14
By Jonathan Amos Turtles killed as they were having sex and then fossilised in position have been described by scientists. The remains of the 47-million-year old animals were unearthed in the famous Messel Pit near Darmstadt, Germany. They were found as male-female pairs. In two cases, the males even had their tails tucked under their partners' as would be expected from the coital position. Details are carried in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. Researchers think the turtles had initiated sex in the surface waters of the lake that once existed on the site, and were then overcome as they sank through deeper layers made toxic by the release of volcanic gases. The animals, still in embrace, were then buried in the lakebed sediments and locked away in geological time. "We see this in some volcanic lakes in East African today," explained Dr Walter Joyce of the University of Tübingen. "Every few hundred years, these lakes can have a sudden outburst of carbon dioxide, like the opening of a champagne bottle, and it will poison everything around them." The turtles described in Biology Letters are of the extinct species Allaeochelys crassesculpta. They are about 20cm in length; the females are slightly bigger than the males. Their nearest living relatives are probably the pig-nosed turtle (Carettochelys insculpta), a much bigger species that swims in waters around Australia and Papua New Guinea. A. crassesculpta is just one of thousands of exquisitely preserved fossil creatures pulled from Messel Pit, which has Unesco World Heritage status because of its palaeontological significance. Nine pairs of turtles have been unearthed at the site over the past 30 years. In most of the couples, the individuals were discovered in contact with each other. For the pairs that were not, the individuals were no more than 30cm apart. "People had long speculated they might have died while mating, but that's quite different from actually showing it," said Dr Joyce. "We've demonstrated quite clearly that each pair is a male and a female, and not, for example, just two males that might have died in combat. "This fact combined with the observation that their back ends are always orientated toward one another, and the two pairs with tails in the position of mating - that's a smoking gun in our view." It is said to be the only example in the fossil record of vertebrates being preserved in the act of having sex. For invertebrates, there are numerous examples in the scientific literature of copulating insects being caught in amber, or fossilised tree resin. Turtles fossilised in sex embrace
Science correspondent, BBC News
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#1. To: farmfriend (#0)
Nice play on words... LOL Are you talking smack about me? It's not nice to talk smack about Turtle. I sense a disturbance in the farce. Much gnashing will ensue.
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The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” —Samuel Adams America: Israel's Handmaiden
It's not nice to talk smack about Turtle. Hey your sexual prowess is immortalized in stone! Does anyone honestly believe that the global elites whose wealth and power depend on manipulation of the global chess board would leave something like the Presidency up to chance?
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The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” —Samuel Adams America: Israel's Handmaiden
Was it Turtle and an olde shoe???????
You can almost hear him, in turtlese, "Ya like that, don'tcha baby?"
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The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” —Samuel Adams America: Israel's Handmaiden
Didnt know shoes existed back then. "This fact combined with the observation that their back ends are always orientated toward one another, and the two pairs with tails in the position of mating - that's a smoking gun in our view."
"The real deal is this: the ‘royalty’ controlling the court, the ones with the power, the ones with the ability to make a difference, with the ability to change our course, the ones who will live in infamy if we pass the tipping points, are the captains of industry, CEOs in fossil fuel companies such as EXXON/Mobil, automobile manufacturers, utilities, all of the leaders who have placed short-term profit above the fate of the planet and the well-being of our children." - James Hansen
#2. To: farmfriend (#0)
#3. To: farmfriend (#0)
#4. To: Turtle (#2)
Are you talking smack about me?
#5. To: farmfriend (#0)
#6. To: farmfriend, Turtle (#0)
Turtles killed as they were having sex and then fossilised in position have been described by scientists.
#7. To: Eric Stratton (#3)
#8. To: Obnoxicated (#7)
#9. To: farmfriend (#0)
The remains of the 47-million-year old animals were unearthed in the famous Messel Pit near Darmstadt, Germany.
Anyone offended by this post, click here.
 | "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." -Albert Camus. |
#10. To: Armadillo, Cynicom (#9)
I think we all were thinking along the same lines. Didnt know shoes existed back then.
Does anyone honestly believe that the global elites whose wealth and power depend on manipulation of the global chess board would leave something like the Presidency up to chance?
#11. To: farmfriend (#4)
So you're saying I haven't had sex for 65 million years? Hey your sexual prowess is immortalized in stone!
I sense a disturbance in the farce. Much gnashing will ensue.
#12. To: Turtle (#11)
well now that you mention it...
Does anyone honestly believe that the global elites whose wealth and power depend on manipulation of the global chess board would leave something like the Presidency up to chance?
#13. To: farmfriend (#12)
Shut up, weisenheimer. well now that you mention it...
I sense a disturbance in the farce. Much gnashing will ensue.
#14. To: Turtle (#13)
LOL
Does anyone honestly believe that the global elites whose wealth and power depend on manipulation of the global chess board would leave something like the Presidency up to chance?
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