Scientists from the Berlin Museum for Natural History discovered an ancient, 99-million-year-old daddy long legs fossil in Burma, according to the Epoch Times. The specimen, which was fully fossilized in amber, had just reached manhood when he met his death and possessed a penis size almost half of his body length that was erect at the time of his death.
"It must have been in an amorous state to have it out like this," Ron Clouse of the American Museum of Natural History, who wasn't involved with the study, told National Geographic. "This poor animal."
Most likely, the arachnid fell into tree resin during its moment of excitement and sexual arousal, leading to its entombment in amber, according to the New York Daily News.
Currently, the fossil is being hailed as among one of the best preserved ever found.
"This is the first record of a male copulatory organ of this nature preserved in amber and is of special importance due to the age of the deposit," the authors wrote in the abstract of the study.
The penis is of particular importance in this family due to its ability to differentiate between different types of daddy long legs, also known as harvestman. This specimen was identified as Halitherses grimaldii.
"Different families, and even species, [of harvestmen] can have a characteristic penis shape," said Jason Dunlop, who headed the study. "In fact, [penises] are often even more important than the shape of the body and legs."
Harvestmen have been around for millions of years, which makes them of particular interest to scientists due to the fact that their family tree has the potential to shed light on how other lifeforms made their way across the shifting landmasses present during the Earth's earliest years.
The findings were published in the Jan. 28 issue of The Science of Nature.
