Nature—The Museum of Victoria

I’ve been reading the journal Nature weekly since 2003 and occasionally skimming through Cosmopolitan’s website since about the same year. Almost invariably, the articles about sex in Nature are more interesting and relevant than those in Cosmo. This week is no exception.

This week’s Nature features fascinating research detailing the discovery of fossil embryos inside of 380 million-year-old fish. What this find suggests is that the origins of penetrative sex in vertebrates originated around the same time as the jaw bone (a date much earlier than previous estimates). Further fossil finds lead the researchers to believe that these placoderms may have mated in a manner similar to that used by sharks, with males inserting a long, articulated, cartilaginous organ into their female partners and internally fertilizing the female’s eggs.

Aussie PI John Long explains the finding: “We have an expression that humans like to get a leg over,” Long says. “But these placoderms actually like to get a leg in.”

More proof that Australians are just the hippest/flyest/coolest cats around.