Death comes for us all.
According to an announcement made in The Science of Nature last week, researchers in Burma have uncovered the 99-million-year-old fossilized remains of a “harvestman” (an order of arachnids distinguishable from spiders by several physiological differences), also known as a daddy longlegs. But its legs weren’t all that was long about the specimen.
According to researchers, the harvestman’s penis was extended to half its body length at the time of death.
The team explains in their study, “This is the first record of a male copulatory organ of this nature preserved in amber and is of special importance due to the age of the deposit.”
Due to the distinctive shape of the ancient peen, researchers have also determined that the lusty longlegs is representative of a new family of harvestmen. Study leader Jason Dunlop explains, “Different families, and even species, [of harvestmen] can have a characteristic penis shape. In fact, [penises] are often even more important than the shape of the body and legs.”
Although Dunlop hypothesizes that the harvestman may have become trapped in resin prior to erection and that its struggle for life may have “caused the blood pressure to shoot up and the penis to become squeezed out,” Ron Clouse of the American Museum of Natural History shared a different theory with National Geographic:
It must have been in an amorous state to have it out like this. This poor animal.
(via Gizmodo, images via screenshot and Penis Morphology in a Burmese Amber Harvestman)
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