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World's Oldest Genitals Found in Scotland
Reuters ^ | September 17, 2003 | Reuters

Posted on 09/17/2003 12:02:15 PM PDT by AntiGuv

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have discovered fossils of the world's oldest genitals -- belonging to 400 million-year-old insects -- in ancient rocks in Scotland.

The penis of the ancient harvestmen insects, commonly known as a daddy-long-legs, was two-thirds the length of the body and remarkably similar to the modern-day species, New Scientist magazine said Wednesday.

"The discovery of the world's oldest genitals proves that little has changed over the last 400 million years -- at least for daddy-long-legs," the magazine said.

Jason Dunlop and a team of researchers from Humbolt University in Berlin, Germany, who will present their findings at a conference in Aberdeen, also uncovered a long egg-laying organ called an ovipositor from a female.

"As well as genitals, the fossils have the oldest known arachnid respiratory system, suggesting harvestmen's ancestors had long since crawled out of the sea and learned to breathe," the magazine said.

Harvestmen arachnids are sometimes mistaken for spiders but they are more closely related to ticks or mites because they do not spin webs.

The previous oldest penis, which dated back 100 million years and was found in Brazil, belonged an ostracod, an early crustacean related to crabs, shrimps and water fleas.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: daddylonglegs; dinonuts; everwood; weewillie
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1 posted on 09/17/2003 12:02:15 PM PDT by AntiGuv
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To: AntiGuv
...attached to Sean Connery.
2 posted on 09/17/2003 12:03:30 PM PDT by TheBigB (I don't believe in Astrology. We Scorpios are skeptical.)
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To: AntiGuv
Broken news indeed.
3 posted on 09/17/2003 12:03:30 PM PDT by new cruelty
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To: AntiGuv
"The discovery of the world's oldest genitals proves that little has changed over the last 400 million years -- at least for daddy-long-legs," the magazine said.

Yep, even back then, mommy-long-legs had daddy by the fossils...

4 posted on 09/17/2003 12:04:01 PM PDT by dirtboy (www.ArmorforCongress.com - because lawyers with a clue are rarer than truth-telling Democrats)
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To: AntiGuv
"Please return them to Helen Thomas immediately".
5 posted on 09/17/2003 12:04:49 PM PDT by theDentist (Liberals can sugarcoat sh** all they want. I'm not biting.)
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To: AntiGuv
What's hilary doing in Scotland!
6 posted on 09/17/2003 12:04:57 PM PDT by Free_at_last_-2001 (is clinton in jail yet?)
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To: TheBigB
ROFLMAO
7 posted on 09/17/2003 12:05:12 PM PDT by Robe (Rome did not create a great empire with meetings,they did it by killing all those who opposed them)
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To: AntiGuv
Hey, maybe someone can loan them to the Republican leaders in the Senate.
8 posted on 09/17/2003 12:05:18 PM PDT by geedee (America is a land where men govern, but women rule.)
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To: TheBigB
.......attached to Sean Connery.

LOL. If you call that attached...

9 posted on 09/17/2003 12:05:18 PM PDT by Petronski (Calm down. Eat some fruit or something.)
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To: AntiGuv
Damn dyslexia. I thought it said "World's Oldest Gentiles"
10 posted on 09/17/2003 12:05:38 PM PDT by Treebeard
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To: AntiGuv
They can't be from any of Arlen Specter's relatives as he never inheritated any.
11 posted on 09/17/2003 12:06:01 PM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: AntiGuv
C*ck of Ages
12 posted on 09/17/2003 12:06:49 PM PDT by Physicist
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To: AntiGuv
Sometimes it's just too easy....
13 posted on 09/17/2003 12:06:59 PM PDT by Samwise (There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil.)
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To: AntiGuv

Anita Hill's cavewoman ancestor: "He then asked me if that was a pubic hair on his Pterodactyl juice. I was mortified!".

14 posted on 09/17/2003 12:07:06 PM PDT by Pokey78 ("I thought this country was founded on a principle of progressive taxation." Wesley Clark to Russert)
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To: 1Old Pro
Arlen's Pecker...
15 posted on 09/17/2003 12:07:40 PM PDT by Treebeard
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To: AntiGuv
Is "boner" an appropriate term for a creature with an exoskeleton?
16 posted on 09/17/2003 12:08:08 PM PDT by Physicist
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To: TheBigB
...attached to Sean Connery.

If Sean weren't such gun-grabbing fool (scroll down a bit to the section on celebrities and national figures who have lent their name and notoriety to anti-gun causes, speaking out for anti-gun legislation, and providing a voice for anti-gun organizations), I might be willing to concede your point.

17 posted on 09/17/2003 12:10:00 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: AntiGuv
The penis of the ancient harvestmen insects, commonly known as a daddy-long-legs, was two-thirds the length of the body...

I guess that made mommy-long-legs happy!

18 posted on 09/17/2003 12:10:39 PM PDT by VRWCmember
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To: Physicist
"The previous oldest penis, which dated back 100 million years and was found in Brazil, belonged "

to Strom Thurmond...

19 posted on 09/17/2003 12:10:41 PM PDT by Treebeard
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To: VRWCmember
Comparatively, if humans were blessed like that, the uh...copulatory organ of a six foot male would be four feet long. You'd have to evolve riflings in the bore to get anything out of it.
20 posted on 09/17/2003 12:12:47 PM PDT by Treebeard
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