BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhuanet) -- A study published
Thursday in the British journal Nature said the oldest soon-to-be mother fish
has been found in a fossil in northwestern Australia.
The armored fish was immortalized in a fossil while still attached to her offspring by an umbilical cord, revealing the one last look of the 380-million-year-old mother-to-be.
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An illustration of the fossil remains of the 375-million-year-old placoderm fish is seen in this undated handout image released by Museum Victoria. Australian scientists unveiled on May 29, 2008, the fossilised remains of the oldest vertebrate mother ever discovered, a 375-million-year-old placoderm fish with embryo and umbilical cord attached.(Xinhua/AFP Photo)
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"When I first saw the embryo inside the mother fish,
my jaw dropped," said researcher John Long, a paleontologist at Museum Victoria
in Melbourne, Australia. "It dawned on me after studying the specimen that this
was the earliest evidence of vertebrates having sex by copulation ¡ª not just
spawning in water, but sex that was fun."
The fish, an entirely new species called "Materpiscis
attenboroughi," pushes back the first known case of live birth in the animal
kingdom by some 200 million years.
The tail-first birthing process was probably similar
to that of some species of sharks and rays living today, the study says.
"The discovery is certainly one of the most
extraordinary fossil finds ever made, and changes our understanding of the
evolution of vertebrates," Long commented.
During an expedition funded by the Australian
Research Council, Long and his colleagues discovered the fish remains buried in
the Gogo Formation, a renowned treasure trove of well-preserved fish fossils.
When Materpiscis lived, this area in Western Australia was a tropical reef
teeming with life.
Examples in the fossil record of animals giving birth
are extremely rare. Scientists announced in 2006 the discovery of remains of a
pregnant ichthyosaur that lived about 100 million years ago.
(Agencies)
