Fish First To Do The Deed
A recent study in the journal Nature finds evidence that a prehistoric fish was the first to reproduce by fertilization inside the female. The fossilized fish is over 350 million years old, and though the fossil has been in the hands of the Natural History Museum in London for years, scientists recently decided that a smaller skeleton inside the fossil was not a last meal, but instead was a developing baby fish.
This finding is important because until fairly recently, scientists thought that the predominant form of reproduction this long ago was external-- the female laying eggs in the water, where they would then be fertilized by the male. Instead, it seems that the more advanced process of viviparity-- reproducing internally-- has been around for quite a while. No word yet on how much fun these fish had with their newfound activity.
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