Male fossil discovered may be oldest on record

WASHINGTON — A fossil of a small sea creature extracted from a 425 million-year-old British rock formation is the oldest unequivocally male fossil known, researchers say.

The animal, a new member of a large species group called ostracode, was buried under volcanic ash, which mineralized and retained an image of its soft body parts. Researchers constructed a highly detailed, three-dimensional picture of the animal after digging the fossil from a rock bed in Herefordshire.

Details revealed include gills, eyes, limbs designed for swimming and the oldest known male organ in the fossil record. That led researchers to name the new species Colymbosathon ecplecticos, which is Greek for "amazing swimmer with large penis."

"The whole animal is amazing," said David Siveter, a researcher at the University of Leicester. He is first author of a study reported this week in the journal Science.

Modern relatives of C. ecplecticos are found in virtually every aquatic environment on Earth. They are bivalves, but are more closely related to crabs and lobsters than to clams or oysters. Most eat dead organic matter.

C. ecplecticos was about 0.20 inch at its widest dimension, and its soft body parts closely resemble those of its modern relatives.