суббота, 9 ноября 2013 г.

Insects sex: case of insect interruptus yields a rare fossil find


     Оказывается насекомые тоже занимались сексом в миссионерской позиции. Эти мушки погибли около 165 млн лет назад. Извержение вулкана застало из во время спаривания. Отпечаток акта на камне дошел до наших дней и хранится в Китае.




About 165 million years ago, in what is now northeastern China, two insects were doing what comes naturally. Suddenly, in the middle of copulating, they were struck dead, felled by poisonous gas from a volcanic eruption. But the moment was not lost. Fortunately for science, the insects, still in the grip of what passes for passion among froghoppers, sank to the bottom of a lake where they were preserved for the ages under layers of ash and sediment. They ended up in an insect fossil collection in Beijing, and scientists poring over the collection recently discovered and exposed them.


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