A 40 million-year-old sex act is frozen in time (No, it's not about John McCain)

[Contrary1]

Forty million years ago, a female mite met an attractive partner, grabbed him with her clingy rear end and began to mate — just before a blob of tree resin fell on the couple, preserving the moment for eternity.

The discovery, reported in the latest issue of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, proves that some female mites are, or at least were, mightier than their mates.

A top view of the pair of mites that were caught in midcopulation for all time by a drop of tree resin. Researchers Pavel Klimov and Ekaterina Sidorchuk studied the copulating mite pair, now preserved in Baltic amber. They noticed traditional sex roles were reversed.

"In this species, it is the female who has partial or complete control of mating," explained Klimov, an associate research scientist at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. "This is in contrast to the present-day reproductive behavior of many mite species where almost all aspects of copulation are controlled by males."


ore: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41857938/ns/technology_and_science-science/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Oh, what a way to go!

But wait!

I do believe........

Why yes....

They're smiling!




:hide:

[BlueMTexpat]

4. LOL - my reaction exactly! nt

[progressoid]

2. Alerting!

No sex threads.

[Historic NY]

3. coitus interruptus in the insect world.

[denem]

5. a 'blob of tree resin'?

OK. I'll but the negatives.

[AnneD]

6. Wait...

Is that a cigarette I see.

[denem]

7. Smokin'

:evilgrin:

[chollybocker]

8. Further proof that size isn't everything.

:yoiks:

[Javaman]

9. "Hey baby, this is a night you will never forget..."

whoops.

[SidDithers]

10. No sex threads!!..

:hi:

Sid

[Love Bug]

11. Bow chicka bow wow...

[PVnRT]

12. That's what she said?

[demwing]

13. 40 million years in the same position?

sounds like my first marriage...

[Dappleganger]

14. Hard for all eternity...

I guess that's well past the 6-hour limit to call the doctor?

[FailureToCommunicate]

15. Too bad the female-controls-sex species died out...

Just sayin'