40-Million-Year-Old Sex Act Captured in Amber

I just found this kind of neat how something can be immortalized like this. However, I am sure these two would feel differently...

Forty million years ago, a female mite met an attractive partner, grabbed him with her clingy rear end and began to mate -- just before a blob of tree resin fell on the couple, preserving the moment for eternity.

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Researchers Pavel Klimov and Ekaterina Sidorchuk studied the copulating mite pair, now preserved in Baltic amber. They noticed traditional sex roles were reversed.

"In this species, it is the female who has partial or complete control of mating," explained Klimov, an associate research scientist at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. "This is in contrast to the present-day reproductive behavior of many mite species where almost all aspects of copulation are controlled by males."

Obviously the females used to be smarter... I am only kidding, but I find it weird that the roles changed over time.

Mite sex is probably more complex and interesting than you might imagine for speck-sized creatures. In many present day mite species, males coerce females to mate. The males fight off other potential suitors, and guard females before and after mating. If a partner isn't in the mood, too bad.

Male harassment of females is common.

Isn't it always? Again I jest. I suppose evolution of the species brought about some change in mating. Obviously many mites are thriving today so it seems that some changing has worked in their favor.

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You can read more here...
news.discovery.com...

Sounds like my sex life.
Seeashrink

Buggystyle lol (dumb)

reply to post by adamsunday


That Be How We Roll Dawg.

Hope that was not my great,great,great,great,great,great,great,great,great,great,great,great grandfather.

reply to post by rogertom


Add one more great and you hit the nail on the head...

Damn,I saw that and was goin to post some clever reply,like if I died what a way to go!S&F

Its gonna replace my current naughty background poster. Forty million years old, dang, pretty awesome.

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe


GREAT

reply to post by kdog1982


Nothing like being caught with your pants down.... 40 million years later!

This gives a hole new meaning to Bumping Uglies.

Wouldnt that suck...

One minute your getting it on... having the time of your life... its getting hot and steamy... the next minute BAM!!! TREE RESIN FALLS ON YOU... TRAPS YOU INSIDE AND SUFFOCATED YOU AND YOUR PARTNER FOR ALL ETERNITY...

Don't know about you... but I hope this doesnt happen to me any time soon...

Originally posted by Kangaruex4Ewe

Mite sex is probably more complex and interesting than you might imagine for speck-sized creatures. In many present day mite species, males coerce females to mate. The males fight off other potential suitors, and guard females before and after mating. If a partner isn't in the mood, too bad.

Is this "males coerce females to mate" a euphemism for rape? "If a partner isn't in the mood, too bad."...sure sounds like it.

Will the SPCA just stand by and let those mites get raped?

It is interesting that the dominant sex has reversed over millions of years, I didn't know that.

Nothing like having your most intimate moment looked at under the microscope.

I'm with Arbitrageur on this one.

It sounds to me like rape.

The female wants strong healthy babies, so she chooses a rather strong active mate.
He has no say in it.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Maybe peta will join forces with the spca and form an insect protection alliance...

This kind of reminded me of Jurassic Park, but I always wonder how they spot something that small in the amber to study it further. Or do they just study all of the amber they find and get lucky on occasion?

Lots of tedious work either way.

You can't post porn here! MODS!!!

Very... interesting. at least we all have something in common over the millions of years.

What is this...? I don't even...

Ok, is that like... for real? females had... wait, what? no, no way...

well... in that case, if there are any aliens out there, that gives us pretty high change (50:50) that females do all the work. In other words, if we ever meet aliens whos genders have reversed sexual organs... should we start "doing" males? Thats kinda gay...

I can imagine if the sexual organs were reversed until this day:

Husband: Hello sweetheart, I'm home!
Wife: Hi darling, are you hungry?
H: Well, no, not yet, but I'm kinda "honey" (I dont want to be dirty ) after whole day of work
W: Lololol, darling, you took that words out of my mouth, you silly devil
H: Lets have some fun, bedroom time, yaaay!
W: I can't wait until you ride me like a horse! My "carrot" is already becoming hard just thinking about it
H: My "cave" is becoming wet as well. Lets go!
*both run into the room*
H: Oh, wait, I haz not take pillz , meow, we cannot haz sex